MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Manatee County commissioners have delayed a vote on the county’s proposed 2045 comprehensive plan until Aug. 6 after residents said they needed more time to review the more than 800-page document, which could guide growth in the county over the next two decades.
The county finalized the plan earlier this year. If commissioners approve it, the plan will be sent to the state for review.
Bradenton resident Mark Vanderee said he has been reading the documents one page at a time and has reviewed about 25% of them so far.
“What we’ve found so far, we aren’t really happy with,” Vanderee said.
Vanderee said some of his biggest concerns involve changes made because of a state law that limits how local governments can regulate development after major disasters. He said the issue is personal for his family, who owns six acres in near Lake Manatee State Park.
“We had a natural creek behind us, spring-fed, full of otters, gators and wildlife of all types,” Vanderee said. “The grandkids love going down there and seeing nature, getting off their screens, breathing in fresh air and just relaxing. And we see that going away, with a whole bunch of noise, congestion and pavement under their feet.”
Vanderee also said he is concerned about an amendment that he believes would remove citizen input in certain situations.
“It’s an administrative and final interpretation for land development disputes that used to go before the Board of County Commissioners with public input,” Vanderee said. “And this change would make it strictly a county administrative review and decision-making process.”
Commissioners were expected to vote on the plan last month, but feedback from residents led the county to push the vote to next month.
“When we spoke to the public in June, people kind of uniformly said, ‘We haven’t had enough time to look over this, to look at what the changes are that you’re wanting to make,’” Manatee County Commissioner Amanda Ballard said.
Ballard said residents will have another chance to speak before the Aug. 6 vote, but significant changes may be limited.
“A lot of the changes are not really major,” Ballard said. “So right now, we’re actually limited a lot by state law. We can’t do anything that’s considered more restrictive or burdensome on development.”
Ballard said the plan is more incentive-based under current state law.
“For example, if a developer wanted to add an extra wetland buffer, we can provide a positive incentive for that,” Ballard said. “But right now, we can’t mandate things.”
Ballard also said if development restrictions are amended by future state laws, the county could have more flexibility to make additional changes.
Vanderee said he is not done raising concerns. He has planned his own public input session for July 29 to hear from other residents and plans to present those findings to commissioners.
“What we’d like to see is a plan that has the minimum legal requirements to meet the comprehensive plan,” Vanderee said.
The Aug. 6 meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at the county administration building.
Julia Hazel
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