BOCC Votes 4-3 to Allow Comp Plan Amendment for Housing Near Evers Reservoir

BRADENTON – After contentious debate and strong public opposition at Thursday's land use meeting, Manatee County Commissioners voted 4-3 in favor of a comp plan amendment that would change a parcel of land owned by the City of Bradenton in east county to Res-6, facilitating its sale to a home developer.

The land is near Evers Reservoir and the city’s water treatment plan. The city said that it had held the land as surplus in case it needed to expand that facility but decided it would be best to sell the asset and use the money for current infrastructure needs within the city.

At the last meeting, the county broached the issue of negotiating to get another parcel of city-owned land that would allow them to connect the southern dead end at nearby Natalie Way (which connects to SR70 to the north), to Honore Ave. This would create a second north-south thoroughfare between SR70 and Honore, improving the flow of traffic to accommodate the increased development, while also acting as a replacement for the controversial Tara Bridge.

That possibility hit a major roadblock at the start of the meeting, however, when Caleb Grimes, attorney for the developer, Taylor Morrison, explained that they had discovered a previous agreement between the city and the county, in which the city yielded right of ways needed for Honore’s 2010 expansion to Lockwood Ridge (the existing N-S thoroughfare between it and SR70) and, as part of that deal, were assured that Natalie Way would not be considered for a future north-south thoroughfare, better protecting its reservoir and plant.

Some county commissioners and several residents of the area expressed gross concern over both the current state of traffic on Honore Avenue and the potential for it to get much worse if hundreds of additional houses were put in without a new thoroughfare to improve connectivity. Commissioners Baugh and Smith were uncomfortable with the last moment revelation and wanted to continue the meeting until they could get a better handle on the county’s position and ensure no one had missed any other pertinent agreements.

Commissioner DiSabatino said that regardless of the previous agreement, the county should secure something to ensure its citizens aren’t overly burdened by the new development in exchange for amending the comp plan in order to facilitate the sale, noting that the county might not have given such assurances, had they known the city would later seek to change the designation back to Res-6 and sell the land to a developer.

"This is a big sale for them, a lot of money," said DiSabatino. "I think they can work with us to deal with the traffic that it’s going to create."

The City of Bradenton, however, was ardently opposed to such a deal. City Administrator Carl Callahan explained that they had no interest in putting a thoroughfare that close to the reservoir and treatment plant. He mentioned the environmental concerns to the reservoir and its habitat expressed by some of those in opposition to the development and argued that the road was more of a danger than the homes would be.

"There is no one who cares more about protecting (the reservoir) than us," said Callahan. "This is our drinking water. You have to understand that. We don’t want a major roadway going past this. Can you imagine a semi trailer going by with 50,000 gallons of fuel it could spill? This is potentially what we could be looking at."

Grimes reminded the board that the development would still come back for a site plan and general development plan approval, and that there would be plenty of opportunity to ensure that the development came to fruition in a way that addressed their concerns. However, commissioners Baugh and Smith said they just weren’t comfortable going forward this quickly with so much new information on the table, while Commissioner DiSabatino said she could not go along with the amendment without addressing the traffic "bottleneck" it would create.

While it is true that there are a host of approvals the developer will need to secure, approval of the comp plan amendment was the biggest piece of leverage the county had in trying to open up Natalie Way, as it will not be able to compel the developer based on land it doesn’t own, and the city would have even less motivation at that point to give up or even sell the land needed to extend Natalie Way to Honore.

Commissioner Baugh motioned for a continuance and Commissioner Smith seconded. DiSabatino joined them and it looked like it would pass, as there had been no real discussion in favor of moving forward that day. However, commissioners Benac, Whitmore, Trace and Jonsson all voted Nay, immediately followed by an identical 4-3 vote, this time in favor of approving the comp plan amendment, which now gets transmitted to the state for its approval and comments from FDOT.