If we're opening up the development code...

Let's make some changes the public actually wants

Yesterday, October 5, the rest of the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners elected to preemptively open up our development code and make a singular change to how development can be done in Manatee County.

A shortsighted decision was made to significantly reduce our long-standing wetland buffers to allow for more development and less environmental and water protection. I won’t rehash the meeting as it went about as expected. I previously wrote about it during its first hearing in August, which you can find here:

At least you can park by the water...

If you would like to see the full discussion, complete with hours of thoughtful public comment, you can watch the meeting video below:

Cutting our buffers was clearly a development change against general public interest. After the meeting, however, I starting thinking about all the to do’s and wish list items regarding our current development process that I’ve been sitting on; patiently waiting for our promised comprehensive plan and land development code update.

Seeing as we’ve now set a precedent to opening up our code and piecemealing “urgent” and “county-initiated” items, I have made my initial list of those policies and practices I’ll be bringing to the Boars (again, in most cases).

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Impact Fees

We promised the public, via a vote on April 18, that we’d bring the finalized impact fee study back for a vote before it expired. The cost of this, now almost six month, delay is significantly more than the nominal cost of a new study.

I’ll be expanding on that shortly in a future Substack but, for now, we need to get this on the calendar and properly assess these costs of growth and development. We can’t leave the burden of our future growth on our current residents any longer.

Facility Investment Fees

Facility Investment Fees are the impact fees of utilities. They allow communities to ensure a sufficient water supply for the future. Manatee County is nearing the end of the useful life of our current study. We just authorized a study on revised fees for east of the Future Development Area Boundary but not for the remainder of the County. Your water rates just went up 9.5%, in part to cover the upcoming bonding required to cover the shortfalls we’re experiencing with a stale fee schedule.

Clear Cutting

The first step in every development is to simply strip the land clear of all native plants and trees. Even with a tree fund fee, this is the common, cost-effective and lazy way to start any new subdivision or development in Manatee County. This practice is detrimental to the land and causes many (un)intended consequences as that land is left barren well before proper storm water systems can be put in place to mitigate impacts. Its effects on the surrounding neighbors can, and presently are, significant. We need better incentives to discourage clear cutting and retain existing trees and habitat.

Future Development Area Boundary (FDAB)

Every Manatee County resident east of SR 675 and along SR 62 keeps a watchful eye on our FDAB line. This is the boundary which is (was) the demarcation between urban development and rural lands. That boundary was blurred with the passing of Policy 2.1.2.8 which has already seen five development proposals come before the Board for approval of projects east of the line. Now the question is; where will that line go from here? The short answer is - it simply cannot move at this time. However, it’s not as simple (or as cheap) as it appears.

Policy 2.1.2.8

This was a comprehensive plan policy that was presumed to be in place for isolated use. As mentioned above, it’s been utilized five times in 2023 alone and it’s been very apparent that no one knows how to interpret it. The financial and infrastructure consequences are looking to be significant now that we can actually see this policy in practice. I’ve been pushing for a substantial review and update to eliminate the future burden on Manatee County but we have not moved to hold a meaningful discussion or to remove it entirely until it can be cleaned up. This must happen before further damage is caused by this policy.

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Admittedly, our land code is over thirty years old. It’s been spot-modified regularly but it needs a full and complete macro review to catch it up with past growth within our county and present best-practices for development. Some changes are not time-sensitive and can be made in due course as the process works itself through development services.

Unlike wetland buffers, however, the above ARE time-sensitive and we cannot wait to move them forward.

If the rest of the BOCC believes it should be making one-off changes for wetland buffers to negatively affect your quality of life, let’s collectively work on some meaningful public initiatives to improve your current, and future, quality of life in Manatee County.

We don’t need a white paper, an out-of-town “consultant” or a propaganda website to pursue common sense, public-interest policies. Just let me know in the comments or via email what other changes or improvements you would like to see with our development code and I’ll get to work!