THE END OF SELBY’S GARDENS Grow Plants, not a Garage

Don’t ruin this lovely garden

I think the gardens should remain the beautiful place that Marie Selby wanted it to be. I love going there. It is beautiful and peaceful and it preserves our plants & trees. We are already destroying too much of our beautiful land for more buildings! I am dead against this parking garage!

Definitely against any more concrete structures that distort the openness and natural beauty that’s slowly disappearing

please save this gem

Stop the insanity!

Enough of turning Florida into a concrete jungle. Please keep Selby into the peaceful, quiet, tranquil, meditative garden that it is and was meant to be!

We cant sleep with the noise that comes from very late night events held on the lawn as late as (1 am)

It's not about the Gardens, it's all about the restaurant, money and financial clout. .

Sarasota is unique because of beautiful natural places like Selby. Keep your N.Y.C ideas to yourself. We don't need anymore concrete, and crowds to ruin our sweet retreat. Totally against your planned ideas to change our beloved Selby.

no

Keep the garden about the plants!

Sad

I love Selby, and the gorgeous drive past it. Both will be ruined by the presence of a huge, one acre, 5 story garage at the entrance of Selby, at Orange Street and Route 41. There is plenty of parking, and many fabulous restaurants already. It is charming now, let's keep it charming. Let's not desecrate a lovely section of our small city.

I do not think this would be Marie Selby's vision for the gardens.

We do not need another restaurant in this town!!!!

For four and a half years a friend and I visited Selby Gardens each week to paint on location. We HATE what has happened to the garden in the last few years. Most disturbing to me is that it seems to completely violate what Marie Selby intended for these gardens.

We love Selby- but not the current board's planned exception to the comprehensive plan. Save our neighborhoods!!

Botanic Gardens are supposed to educate and nurture and support nature - this does none of that

You need to come up with a different project which isn’t so blatantly geared to what an owner wants in a new restaurant and "venue for mass hire", with the gardens very secondary, and it's totally out of character and scale for the site. The CEO and board of Selby should be thoroughly ashamed at the destruction proposed by this plan, of the local area atmosphere and the huge beautiful trees, and quaint older buildings. A giant parking lot and visitor center: they look more like the drab entrance to a metropolitan large corporate office block, than a world class historical botanical garden in a unique place. The rendering of the giant restaurant looks sterile and ugly – resembling a large airport terminal, not a center of excellence for botany and conservation. I note these project workers are building “gardens” in Houston and Pittsburgh as well. Maybe this passes for beautiful in those cities which are not exactly special to look at in the first place; whereas in Sarasota you are out to destroy something already beautiful in a panting desperation for more money at the expense of the current feel and charm, to inflict something generic and soul-less which doesn’t fit there. You can cover it in vines, but it will still be a giant parking garage. It’s disgusting and after many years of membership and visiting since 1983 I certainly won’t be renewing to pay a cent for this monstrosity. Whoever is driving this should be utterly ashamed at the full stacked tower of greed and zero quotient of charm this plan shows. Not to mention the false PR track being played, about achieving carbon neutrality/negativity?? when you are building an enormous multi-storey car park and encouraging masses more cars to the site, you can’t honestly claim carbon benefits. There is actually a song for this exact situation, referencing what was done to Hawaii decades ago- people are supposed to have evolved into something more caring toward nature by now : “They took all the trees Put 'em in a

Stop ruining beautiful Sarasota with high-rise development catering to the wealthy. This is a travesty!