Manatee County denies release of University Park conservation easements

Manatee County commissioners denied a request by Benderson Development to release 14 conservation easements on Oct. 17, but the issue isn’t settled just yet.  

Director of Development Todd Mathes said the company’s “window is short” before the next hurricane season, so Benderson will be making a request for the board’s reconsideration “within days.”

“We consider this the most urgent, pressing priority we have as a company,” Mathes said. 

The easements add up to 54.22 acres. Three are located within University Park Center, and 11 are within the Cooper Creek area. 

The easements protect wetlands, wetland buffers, wetland mitigation areas and upland preservation areas. However, Benderson contends that the easements are making it difficult to solve flooding issues in the surrounding area. 

Had the request been approved, part of the developer’s plan was to mechanically engineer a portion of the wetlands into a stormwater pond and transform some of the forested wetlands into herbaceous wetlands that can better handle water fluctuations.

“The flooding that we’re seeing is because we’re not designed for 12 and 14 inches (of rain) in 24 hours,” said Clint Cuffle, engineer of record for University Town Center, Nathan Benderson Park and the Cooper Creek area. 

“The way to be more resilient is to allow us some engineering solutions that could affect the hydrology in some of these wetlands, but we can’t affect the hydrology without getting the conservation easements released. That’s the first step.” 

Kara Koenig, Environmental Planning Section manager for Manatee County, told commissioners that her main issue was with the “wide breadth of the request.”

The county’s Land Development Code was amended in January 2021 on advice from the county attorney’s office. Koenig said the language wasn’t “consistent with court decisions,” so from that point on, the county was only allowed to require easements over wetland mitigation areas, not wetlands and buffers. 

Mitigation areas are wetlands that were restored, enhanced or created to compensate for wetlands that were impacted by development someplace else. 

Koenig said several release requests have been approved since the code was changed, but to her knowledge, Benderson’s request was the largest to date.

After Hurricane Ian, and with the guidance and approval of county and SWFWMD staff, Benderson was able to clear those easements of overgrowth and obstructions. Releasing the easements would allow the areas to be cleared on a regular basis and also allow for engineering solutions, such as a stormwater pump that can handle a lot more water than a natural wetland. 

“Water is not moving as it should be through this area and through this corridor,” Mathes said. “It’s important to move this forward.” 

He said Benderson was willing to pay $12 million to the county’s mitigation bank to compensate for the wetland impacts, but also said that a “limited development” in the future could help Benderson recoup some of that cost.

Commissioners Kevin Van Ostenbridge and Ray Turner cast the two votes in favor of releasing the easements. 

Van Ostenbridge thought it was an “easy” decision to release the easements, so engineers could solve the flooding problem now. Then, the board could vote against any development proposals in the future. 

“Every two years, this board changes,” Commissioner George Kruse said. “It depends on who’s sitting in your seat right now and how somebody gets in that seat, whether or not it gets declined.” 

Kruse was adamant that Benderson could find other ways to perform flood mitigation without “opening up the can of worms” of a future development.

“I don’t think we should be giving up conservation easements,” he said. “We should be getting more conservation land, especially in light of some of the damage from overbuilding and over paving in areas. (The easements are) protecting UTC right now.”

Benderson Development needs approval from both commissioners and the Southwest Florida Water Management District in order for the easements to be released. A conceptual plan for multifamily housing on the largest easement was submitted as part of Benderson’s request to SWFWMD.  

“There’s a possibility that we would ask to develop that 43 acres, but we’ll just take that off the table for right now,” Mathes said regarding the upcoming request for reconsideration. “That (conceptual drawing) was developed before the June rainstorm and Tropical Storm Debby (in August). We view this like a whole new world.” 

The original request was submitted in 2023 after Hurricane Ian caused over $3 million in damages at Nathan Benderson Park in September 2022. The storm damaged the lake’s wave attenuator, which reduces waves during races, and the shoreline along the south end of the lake.

Mathes said post-Ian mitigation efforts didn’t work. The recent string of hurricanes exacerbated the flooding in such an “extraordinary way” that the problem has to be solved because of the repetitive damage that’s occurring throughout the UTC area. 

He said the severity of the property damage might have been lost in the discussion after the possibility of future development was brought up.

“I think the wheels fell off because we were taking a sort of broad brush to what we view as a piece of paper that’s standing in the way of a solution,” Mathes said. “So we’re going to go back and be more specific about our request. Hopefully, we’ll lessen the commission’s concern about whether this is about development or whether this is about a flood mitigation strategy.”