County's population to double by 2040, expert says

Forget the housing bust; Sarasota County’s population will still double by 2040, according to a national growth expert.

Sarasota County
Population 2000 - 327,000 est. 2040 - 664,000
Housing units 2000 - 183,000 est. 2040 - 372,000
Jobs 2000 - 192,000 est. 2040 - 450,000
Source: Arthur C. Nelson, Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech

The county’s population will grow to 664,000 by that year, said Arthur Nelson, co-director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. That’s double what it was in 2000.
Nelson dismissed arguments that Florida had become unattractive to retirees and that its taxes were too high. Similar arguments were made in the 1980s and the early 1990s about Florida, preceding housing booms in the state, he said.
Nelson was hired to do the study by Sarasota County as part of the effort to rewrite Sarasota County’s redevelopment code.
Nelson also criticized how the low-density way property has been developed here.
“I would say you could accommodate all of your future growth on parking lots,” he said.

Courtesy Herald Tribune