Project ignites flooding concerns in Bradenton

When Gates Creek resident Brittany Lush looks at the tributary of Gates Creek near her home, she worries.

Since development of residential communities including Copperlefe and Osprey Landing were built adjacent to her family’s 19-acre homestead, she has seen flooding increase on the property.

The family’s barn has flooded three times since those communities were built, and following heavy rain events, there has been water in places it has never been before. During a Dec. 20, 2018, storm, water washed out land under a bridge across the portion of the tributary that runs through the property.

“Development has caused increased flooding on our property,” Lush said. “We’d had flooding from hurricanes or extreme storms, but now it’s on a regular basis.”

Lush said she is worried an application to commercially develop the northwest corner of State Road 64 and 117th Street East will only exasperate the problem for her family, as well as her neighbors. A general development application for 18 acres is proposing up to 150,000 square feet of commercial. Cox Chevrolet has announced its intention to build a dealership on the site.

Lush and her neighbors said they are concerned about the use being compatible with the neighborhood, but they also worry about plans to mitigate flooding there. The current proposal would reroute a tributary of Gates Creek from the center of the proposed car lot to its western boundary. The plan also includes 2.25 acres of stormwater facilities and less than an acre of wetland and floodplain mitigation.

Lush said she believes the threat of flooding on the site and on neighboring properties is more substantial than others might think.

“I don’t think they’re paying attention to the current floodplain,” Lush said of the applicant.

Claire Marshall, who has lived on 111th Street East in Windsong Acres since 2000, said development seems to have increased flooding on her property as well. The end of her driveway regularly fills with water after rain, and she now keeps Crocs shoes by the door, so she can wade through it.

Geoff Durr, also a Windsong resident, said he sometimes rides a bicycle to the mailbox to get through the standing water. He has put pallets out before to create a walking path from his house to the mailbox.

“The water is there long enough for tadpoles to hatch into frogs,” he said.

Manatee County Stormwater Division Manager Thomas Gerstenberger said Manatee County requires development within flood-prone areas to reduce the flow of water leaving a to-be-developed property by 50% after development, such as seen in the Mill Creek watershed immediately east and south. (The reduction required by the county is only 25% for the Braden River upstream of the Evers Reservoir.) Proposed developments impacting 25- and 100-year floodplains require mitigation through stormwater management systems on-site.

Gerstenberger said Manatee County currently does not have a stormwater management plan for the Gates Creek Watershed, which is a 3-square-mile area that is a tributary of the Manatee River. Gates Creek itself flows predominantly from south to north to the Manatee River, downstream of the Lake Manatee Reservoir. It extends roughly from developments north of Wood Fern Trail in Lakewood Ranch and is bounded to the west by Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and to the east by 117th Street East.

Gerstenberger said Manatee County last studied the Gates Creek watershed in 1998. 

“That is part of the problem that we have as the review agency, and it’s also the concern of consultants in respect to any type of design or modeling with this particular watershed,” Gerstenberger told Manatee County Planning Commission members Jan. 16. “Gates Creek tributary has no modeling or analysis to determine 25-year or 100-year flood stages to date.”

Gerstenberger said the applicant has used on-site topographic survey information, permit data from surrounding development, widening improvements to S.R. 64 land data and photos from county staff to develop its drainage model for 25- and 100-year flood events. The county has accepted those results for determining the site’s predevelopment condition.

Eagle Trace resident Patricia McHugh said she does not believe the current information available on the Gates Creek tributary is reliable, and Manatee County should not allow development until such data is available.

“This property acts as a natural sponge,” she said.

Gerstenberger said Manatee County plans to study the Gates Creek Watershed, but the earliest such a study could begin is in 2021. Manatee County has submitted to the Southwest Florida Water Management District to split the cost of such a study.

“The [Watershed Management Plan] would also include watersheds west of Gates Creek and south of the Manatee River to the eastern city limits of Bradenton and extend as far south as State Road 70,” Gerstenberger said.

Gerstenberger said even if Manatee County commissioners approve the proposed development Feb. 20, the developer still will have to undergo stormwater review by Manatee County’s stormwater division, as well as by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Transportation. It will be required to satisfy concerns of those agencies before any development could begin.