Manatee County sends development boundary line amendment request to state

A land amendment that would allow development beyond the Future Development Area Boundary line under limited circumstances in Manatee County was approved for transmittal by the Manatee County Commission on Thursday.

Transmitting the amendment does not mean it was approved by the Commission. The amendment will be submitted to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity for review and comments. It will then come back before the Commission within 180 days of submitting the transmittal for a final vote.

“My vote to transmit is not a vote to approve,” Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge said.

Commissioner George Kruse, however, disagreed that the vote to transmit didn’t imply the Commission is leaning toward approval. If that weren’t the case, he said, the Commission could have saved the 15 to 25 East County residents who attended Thursday’s meeting a lot of time by simply voting to transmit right away rather than spending three hours debating the topic first.

If approved, the amendment would allow future applications for development on land adjacent and contiguous to the boundary line, which in East County is located at Bourneside Boulevard from State Road 64 south to University Parkway. It veers slightly westward north of S.R. 64 until it reaches the county’s northern border.

Before holding a final vote at some point in the next six months, commissioners said they want to hold at least one, if not multiple workshops to further discuss the issue and how it fits within the broader view of population growth in Manatee County. Commissioner Reggie Bellamy suggested holding a workshop halfway between Bradenton and Myakka City to make it easier for Myakka City residents to attend, an idea with which other commissioners agreed.