SARASOTA, FLORIDA, June 21st, 2017 – More city services are coming to residents of North Port, the largest and fastest-growing municipality of Sarasota which is again expected to log the sharpest gain in property values amongst municipalities in the county this year.
Such a leap could be further strengthened in the future by the recent city approval of a $12 million aquatic center at Butler Park at 6205 West Price Boulevard north of Heron Creek Golf and Country Club.
Called the Rogers Aquatic Center, this planned facility will include a 25-yard competition swimming pool, a leisure pool and water slides. The city is targeting a May 2019 opening for these water-based attractions which will rise next to Butler Park’s Morgan Family Community Center.
The 42-acre Butler Park now has a lighted, regulation baseball field, in addition to two lighted Little League fields, batting cages and one lighted multipurpose playing field. It also features a pavilion, playground, walking path, a lighted outdoor basketball court, canoe/kayak launch and a small pond.
The Morgan Family Community Center, which is adjacent to Heron Creek Middle School and across the street from North Port High School, has a floor space of 33,300 square feet. It houses a gym, fitness center, locker rooms, studio, game room, teen lounge, meeting rooms, multi-purpose space, and an outdoor patio area.
North Port, which was earlier named as a 2017 Playful City USA community for the eighth consecutive year, is also set to build “Boundless Playground” designed to accommodate children with disabilities or with different sensory abilities. This facility is planned at the Garden of Five Senses on 4299 Pan American Boulevard just east of Avanti Circle which incidentally offers some affordably priced North Port homes for sale.
The 16-acre Garden of the Five Senses already features handicapped-accessible walkways and a selection of mini pavilions. Opened in 2007, the Garden enables visitor appreciation of its exquisite landscape and natural surroundings.
On the water needs of some local communities, North Port started a $1.8 million pilot project to extend city water lines to 230 homes in the Madagascar neighborhood. By October, this neighborhood’s households would have the option for city water connection.
Any new homes built here henceforth will be required to connect to the city’s waterworks. The number of homes that would participate in this voluntary pilot program will serve as an input for city leaders to determine the financial viability of expanding public water lines to other areas of North Port.
North Port’s situation is similar to other Florida areas wherein extra efforts are needed to bring infrastructure, such as water connection and sewers, to older neighborhoods that did not require them when these communities were developed.
It was only around the mid-1990s that the city started requiring developers to install and pay for city water lines. Heron Creek and Sabal Trace are amongst the first communities that were developed following this regulation.
Earlier efforts to expand the city’s water and sewer services to older neighborhoods were shelved because of the last economic downturn. Officials say though that the city’s financial standing is now stable enough to renew such initiatives. In fact, $9.5 million was already spent for the 2013 upgrade of North Port’s water treatment plant, which could be expanded further to cope with the city’s rapidly increasing population.
SARASOTA, FLORIDA, October 7, 2019 – Property values of communities in the Sarasota-Manatee region now face lesser threat from neighborhood eyesores brought about by abandoned, foreclosed homes. Known in the real estate trade as zombie foreclosures, these properties have shrunk significantly in the region. According to an August report of ATTOM Data Solutions, abandoned […] more>>