Current Plan

Purpose

The Comprehensive Plan is the City’s blueprint for the future. The Plan and its Strategies are crucial when preparing for opportunities such as land use, transportation, housing, and open spaces. People need a safe and secure place to live, a healthy economy that provides jobs and services, ways to get around the City (bike, pedestrian, car, transit), and quality recreational features. It is the responsibility of the City leadership to provide the necessary public services and facilities, develop strategies, and adopt regulations and standards that implement this blueprint. The Comprehensive Plan is an umbrella document that guides other City plans, capital projects, and programs which affect the community.

Update

At least every seven years, Florida counties and municipalities are required by state law to update their Comprehensive Plan through an evaluation and appraisal process. While performing this evaluation, it was determined that the existing document still served the community well enough to need only updates.

Changes included the addition of floating solar, coastal resilience, removal of references to the 2010 Comprehensive Plan, the detailed processes involved with creating the 2017-2027 Comprehensive Plan, updating data tables and analysis to the new Comprehensive Plan date, simplifying language for the reader where possible, addressing typographical and grammatical errors, and adding an explanation of the required seven-year evaluation and appraisal process. The majority of the information in the Plan remains from the original 2017-2027 document. This new Plan was adopted through Ordinance No. 2025-14 and became effective on December 24, 2025.

In addition, symbology, tables, and related items throughout the Plan were adjusted or deleted to conform with ADA requirements. This allows the Plan to be available to the public on the City’s website.

Comprehensive Plan Elements

The Plan is comprised of 7 elements and 7 specific neighborhoods, covering a range of topics important to the future of Venice, along with an introduction to the Plan, the City’s history and background data, plus an appendix:

1. Table of Contents
2. Introduction
3. Background
4. Land Use
5. Transportation
6. Open Space
7. Housing
8. Infrastructure
9. Public Schools
10. Private Property Rights
11. Island Neighborhood
12. Gateway Neighborhood
13. East Venice Avenue Neighborhood
14. Pinebrook Neighborhood
15. Laurel Road Neighborhood
16. Northeast Neighborhood
17. Knights Trail Neighborhood
18. Appendix
19. List of 2045 Comprehensive Plan Amendments by Ordinance

Planning Links

Sarasota County Planning and Development Services

Florida Department of Commerce

Florida Department of Transportation

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council

Southwest Florida Water Management District

Sarasota County Schools Planning Department