Kafi Benz - Return To Preservation

Return To Preservation

During the 1980s Benz became active in environmental and historic preservation in Sarasota, Florida. She joined the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation, Inc. shortly after Veronica Morgan founded the organization in 1984, and has served in several positions among its officers as well as being a director of the organization over the years. Accompanied by Jerris Foote, Dudley E. DeGroot and Kafi Benz conducted archaeological research to document historical and prehistoric aspects of two endangered properties that were listed on the National Register of Historic Places—the El Vernona Hotel (built by Owen Burns in 1925 and later renamed to John Ringling Hotel) and Seagate (a fishing retreat built for Gwendolyn and Powel Crosley in 1929) during efforts to protect the historic properties from demolition.

Toward the end of the decade, Benz participated in documentation of other archaeological and historical sites. She was cited as a special contributor to the survey of archaeological, historical, cultural, and natural resources in the coastal areas of Sarasota County that was conducted by the Florida department of environmental regulation as well as for recommending sites deserving further research.

In the late 1980s Benz founded Friends of Seagate Inc., which championed the preservation of the remaining portions of the large platted subdivision, Seagate, that became the estate of the Crosleys, was sold to the Horton family, and was purchased in the late 1970s for development into a club-based condominium project by the Campeau Corporation. Although the property had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, little protection is afforded through listing and Benz's concerns were for both historic preservation and environmental conservation. Unfortunately, the condominium market in Florida had collapsed shortly after Campeau acquired the property and the ambitious plans to use the 1929 home and auxiliary buildings as the clubhouse and headquarters of the development were never realized. Work permits were kept alive by intermittent, but unrelated and minimal construction until the corporation began to collapse. That collapse led to the demise of many of the most prestigious department stores in America—such as Bonwit Teller—having been acquired by the failing Federated Department Stores division that had become part of Campeau. The Seagate property changed hands several times with several inglorious plans submitted for redevelopment that met with opposition until Friends of Seagate was founded and Benz's campaign for acquisition was begun, that resulted finally, in public acquisition. In 1990 the property was acquired by the state of Florida with a division into two portions, the bay front residence and 16 acres (65,000 m2) being overseen by Manatee County and the much larger, eastern portion of the property along Tamiami Trail being overseen by New College and University of South Florida until their separation and the resulting development of this portion into a new campus only for the satellite, commuter campus of the university. Following the public acquisition of the property the objectives of Benz's organization were expanded to broader preservation issues involving archaeological, artistic, cultural, environmental, and historical aspects of the region.

In 2002, Benz also led Friends of Seagate Inc. in its commitment as the nonprofit environmental entity to hold land in a partnership with the Sarasota municipal government as the eligible local governmental entity, applying for a state grant for funding through the Florida Forever Program, (Florida's premier conservation and recreation lands acquisition program) amounting to $1,505,625 for acquisition of Rus In Ur'be, a large land parcel in the center of the Indian Beach Sapphire Shores neighborhood, as a neighborhood park. The parcel includes over 11 acres (45,000 m2) and contained a great deal of wooded and undeveloped land, wetlands, a tennis court, and a Sarasota School of Architecture structure that served as a private clubhouse or recreational lounge for a bay front home opposite it on Bay Shore Road that had been sold separately from the house and held for a long time by a developer. The clubhouse was roofed with glazed blue Japanese ceramic tiles, used pecky cypress timbers for framing, and had expansive glass partitions along the western elevation, facing the tennis courts. The project retained its status among those not able to be included for state funding in that cycle, but was sold for private development before the next cycle began. The structure was demolished and the tennis courts destroyed, plats for development with single family homes were surveyed, and a private road paved through the parcel, but no structures were built prior to the downturn of the real estate market as the speculation boom of the 1990s and 2000s collapsed. Several development projects have been proposed for the parcel. The property remains undeveloped and often is identified as a likely location for a neighborhood park as other efforts continue.