The proximity of undeveloped interior lands may also facilitate projects 
which benefit the bay. Sewage treatment, for example, may be easier to 
provide at inland sites where gross densities are an order of magnitude 
lower than along the coast. 
Today Sarasota Bay is more regulated than it is managed. 
Regulatory limits to projects with adverse impact exist at the federal 
and state level, but local regulation can be traced to public outcry in 
the 1960’s over expansion of Bird Key and destruction of mangrove forests 
on the bay side of Longboat Key by a real estate development company. 
Local regulations were adopted to limit similar projects and to establish 
waters in the City of Sarasota as a marine park. Since then, the 
regional water management district has implemented rules controlling 
runoff and surface water management projects, and the state has (through 
the Department of Environmental Regulation - DER) enforced legislative 
acts addressing nonpoint and wastewater treatment levels. Most recently, 
in 1985 the Environmental Regulatory Commission designated Sarasota Bay 
as an "Outstanding Florida Water" (OFW), bringing into play the severest 
effluent regulations that are currently available in the state. 
Basically, OFW status requires that the DER issue no permit which 
directly lowers existing ambient water quality or indirectly degrades the 
OFW. However, the OFW status does not provide a management framework for 
the water body, even where water quality issues are concerned. It is 
merely a single regulatory criterion used in the issuance of permits. 
There have been several steps leading toward a management program 
for Sarasota Bay. In 1985 the state legislature passed the Local 
Government Comprehensive Planning and Land Development Regulation Act, 
creating a new coastal management section in state law. The law was 
amended in 1985-86 and requires local governments to address specific 
plan topics; coordinate plans with neighboring governments; and be 
consistent with regional plans. Special effort must be made to ensure 
that "certain bays, estuaries and harbors that fall under the 
jurisdiction of more than one local government are managed in a 
consistent and coordinated manner". These requirements may set the stage 
for bay management, but revised plans alone will not contribute to a 
comprehensive program unless (1) the bay is viewed in its entirety by 
each plan; (2) the process leads to an institutional advocacy for the 
bay; and (3) each plan adopts the same language relative to the bay. 
These final measures are not required by state law, and the extent to 
which planning efforts would be redirected to achieve them remains to be 
seen. 
Another significant advancement for Sarasota Bay’s management can 
be traced to the 1982 Tampa Bay Scientific Information Symposium, at 
which existing knowledge about that bay was reviewed and evaluated for 
management purposes. The symposium led rapidly to a series of work 
groups culminating in an Agency on Bay Management within the Tampa Bay 
Regional Planning Council. The Agency adopted a management plan for 
Tampa Bay (Tampa Bay Management Study Commission 1985), and it is in its 
second year of implementation. Success in the Tampa Bay setting 
encouraged scientists and resource managers to meet in 1986 to assess the 
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