Manatee County commissioners deny amended rezone request at Savanna

Savanna resident Phil Gonnella grew up near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

He has lived in New York City and New Jersey for most of his life, surrounded by development.

Now 70 years old, he has cherished his home in Savanna, where he has more space than ever before. He does not want to lose the 5.23-acre open space in front of the community that Meritage Homes is eyeing for commercial use.

"Their lawyer said, 'Well, no one promised them this. It wasn't written in the contract,'" Gonnella said. "And my response is, 'You're right.' But this is what was presented to me. And no one mentioned that you can make such a drastic change."

Manatee County Commissioners denied a Meritage Homes application Feb. 4 to amend the company's plan to develop 5.23 acres near the Savanna entrance by changing the proposed rezone from general commercial to planned development commercial.

Commissioners denied a proposal Jan. 7 by 5-2 vote to remove 5.23 acres in front of the Savanna entrance, currently zoned passive recreation open space, from the 304.39-acre Savanna property to rezone it for commercial use.

Commissioner George Kruse said Thursday the amended rezone Meritage presented didn't change the fact the Board had already voted not to allow the land to be removed from Savanna in the first place.

"I don't care if you're putting a waterpark, you're putting a school, you're putting a Target in there," Kruse said. "The first question (at the Jan. 7 meeting) was, 'Can we take this out?' And that's where we said no. So that's why I didn't even understand the concept of, 'OK, we're not allowed to take it out, but what if we do this zoning instead?' You don't even have that parcel. It's not even up for debate at this point in time. You have to come to me and explain why you can take it out."

Multiple commissioners said the land needs to remain as a passive recreation-open space zone.

"It needs to remain as is," Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said. "The people that have bought there, that's what they bought believing was going to be there. To change it now is just not, in my opinion, the right thing to do."

The open space "was in the original site plan, and if they had any future plans of (rezoning) that, it shouldn't have been in there," Commissioner Carol Whitmore added. "To me, a deal's a deal. If you had brought this before us in the past, and you didn't include it, that's on you, not me."