OUR MISSION
Simple by design.
PROTECT
Our Open Space
Preserve the open spaces and natural resources that define Tatum Ridge - for the people who live here today and the generations of neighbors who will follow.
ADVOCATE
For Responsible Land Use
Support thoughtful growth that respects existing communities, protects natural resources and is supported by appropriate planning and infrastructure.
CONNECT
Neighbors Together
Help residents stay informed, participate in issues that affect our area and get to know the people who live around them.
And sometimes: just have some fun!
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Growth and preservation don't have to be enemies
Sarasota is a wonderful place. It's no surprise that more people want to live here. Growth is inevitable.
How we grow is a choice.
Responsible growth can accommodate new neighbors while respecting existing communities.
Attainable housing is an important community need.
Private property rights matter.
Local residents deserve a meaningful voice in decisions that reshape their communities.
When land has been designated as Open Space, those commitments are permanent.
Progress doesn't require abandoning promises.
HOW IT STARTED
With a promise.
At the heart of Tatum Ridge sits something increasingly rare in Sarasota: a large expanse of green, open land. Legally protected land.
No building rights. Duly recorded as Open Space.
For the neighborhoods surrounding Tatum Ridge Golf Links, that open landscape has been part of this community for decades.
When proposals emerged to dramatically change that land, neighbors asked:
What was promised?
What was approved?
What do County documents actually say?
And who will speak for we who live here?
Questions united neighbors. And united neighbors formed
Tatum Ridge United — stayTRU
NEIGHBORS SERVING NEIGHBORS
stayTRU is local.
We aren't a national advocacy organization.
We're neighbors.
stayTRU brings together local people who volunteer their time, experience and energy on behalf of the place we call home. We come from different neighborhoods, backgrounds and perspectives.
And what connects us is remarkably simple:
We care about Tatum Ridge.
OUR HOME
There's a reason it's called Tatum Ridge.
The story of Tatum Ridge reaches back into Sarasota's early history. Laura Fredonia Redd was born in Florida in 1859, the daughter of Elizabeth Brown Redd and Isaac Alderman Redd, the area's first Baptist minister who settled in the area in 1867.
Laura married Sebern C. Rawls, had five children. By her early twenties, she was a widow.
Laura later married William Harvey Tatum. The Tatum family had migrated to this part of Florida from Tatum, South Carolina following the Civil War. In 1889, Laura and William moved into her new home built by her two children, Hilton and Charlie Rawls, in 1892.
More than a century later, Tatum Ridge remains a distinctive part of Sarasota County with a history, landscape, and identity all its own. We think that's worth protecting.
