Collection Agency Owner at Odds with City Over Land Usage

By Dale White, Herald-Tribune

SARASOTA, FL – This city of rapid development and soaring real estate values finds itself trying to balance two goals: preserve what natural habitat it has left and create more areas for affordable housing.

Those objectives have clashed over a five-acre patch of forest in the north Sarasota neighborhood of Bayou Oaks.

The Nature Conservancy and the Bayou Oaks Neighborhood Association think the small forest would be an ideal spot for a serene and shady public park. The City Commission agrees and wants to buy it.

But there’s a snag — the landowner disagrees.

“I don’t want to sell it,” said Harvey Vengroff, a developer who owns the property.

Located on busy Old Bradenton Road, just minutes from downtown and college campuses, the undeveloped land is a prime location for new homes that city employees, teachers and other moderate-income workers could afford, Vengroff said.

Vengroff is adamant that affordable housing ought to be the city’s higher priority.

Vengroff said he has refused offers from other developers who would like to buy the site and build market-rate homes.

“I don’t want to sell it to somebody who is not going to help the community,” he said.

As the principal shareholder in Vengroff, Williams & Associates, a national debt collection agency, Vengroff said he became interested in affordable housing because he saw many of his 350 Sarasota-based employees struggling to find a place to rent or buy within a reasonable distance of their jobs.

For this complete story, please visit Collection Agency Owner at Odds with City Over Land Usage.