Manatee County seeks additional input on Comprehensive Plan

When Savanna resident Louis Hendrickson drives down White Eagle Boulevard, he said there's one thing missing — crosswalks. 

Hendrickson’s future vision for Manatee County includes safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists, so he attended a public meeting on Aug. 29 at the Lakewood Ranch Library.

During a series of three workshops, citizens were invited to share their thoughts on the county’s Comprehensive Plan. 

The Comprehensive Plan guides the county’s development over the next 10 to 20 years and is currently being reviewed and updated by the engineering firm Kimley-Horn.

The other two sessions were held at the Braden River Library and the Palmetto Library. Lakewood Ranch had the largest turnout with about 75 citizens in attendance.

When asked to weigh in a year ago, citizens targeted four major issues they wanted addressed — transportation, affordable housing, land use and environmental conservation.

At the session in Lakewood Ranch, residents brought up additional concerns such as stormwater management and a lack of services for senior citizens and individuals with disabilities. 

“(The county) is doing an inadequate job now,” Myakka resident David Dean said of the flooding during and since Hurricane Debby. “In 20 years from now, when you have more rainfall per year and per storm, (taxpayers) are going to pay for that.” 

On and off topic

Residents brought up an array of issues during the meeting, but not all fell under the topic of the Comprehensive Plan. 

Dean’s major concern is that the county doesn’t hold developers to a high enough stormwater management standard. 

“Downtown Bradenton still floods,” he said. “The people who built it are gone, and 50 years later, those poor people are still flooding out.”

Denise Greer, deputy director of Development Services for Manatee County, explained how the Comprehensive Plan and the Land Development Code work in practice and in coordination. 

“The Comp Plan sets the rule,” she said, “But we update the LDC and our Public Works standards as we need to. We don’t have to wait for a Comp Plan update to do that. When the state and FEMA change regulations for rainfall events, we also change.” 

A big concern for several residents was an application submitted by Home Depot to build a store on Lorraine Road and Rangeland Parkway. Other residents living in Eagle Trace were worried about a proposal for an apartment complex that’s further along in the process and about to go before commissioners.

Kelley Klepper, the project manager for Kimley-Horn, said those are site specific concerns. He also prefaced some of his answers with “You’re not going to like this” or “This is going to be another unpopular response.” 

One of those responses was when he equated government years to dog years. He said the average timespan for a big project to get through planning, design, permitting and construction is five to seven years. 

Klepper’s point was that a big project under construction today has nothing to do with the Comprehensive Plan updates taking place today. Those approvals were based on what was already established in the Comprehensive Plan 10 plus years ago. 

Bradenton resident Pat Simmons was on topic when she gave an impassioned speech that implored her fellow citizens not to accept a modified plan that isn't inclusive of all citizens.

“It says nothing about what they're going to do for seniors, for disabled veterans and for people with disabilities,” Simmons said. “Yet there are pickleball courts all over this stupid county.”

Simmons received a round of applause, but in addition to stirring the crowd, she spoke directly to the Comprehensive Plan update because she shared a vision for Manatee County’s future. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

After Keppler and Greer’s presentation and a brief Q&A, residents were invited to fill out comment cards and speak directly with staff.

Hendrickson stayed behind to share his thoughts with Manatee County Transportation Planning Manager Nelson Galeano.

“It doesn’t cost that much money to run a sidewalk or put down some paint for a crosswalk,” Hendrickson said. “Somebody has to care.” 

Planners also have to anticipate.

“As we’re going through this, we’re looking at what we anticipate the population needs over the next 20 years,” Keppler said. 

He used roads as an example of what kinds of questions are asked during the review process. Are there roads in the right places? Are the roads sized to accommodate growth? What is the funding mechanism in place?

A year ago, during the first round of workshops, the goal was to rollout the plan by this summer and adopt the plan by December. 

However, the commission’s makeup changed following the primary election on Aug. 20. New commissioners are on the way with different thoughts about the future.

“We’re not trying to rush and do anything right now,” Klepper said. “We’re working with the current county commission, and when the new county commission comes on board, we’re going to do the same thing. We’re going to present to them and listen to their concerns.” 

The new goal is to release a draft of the amended Comprehensive Plan, and then gather more feedback from citizens. Greer estimated the next round of workshops would be held in February. 

One issue that is not included in conversations about the Comprehensive Plan update is the size of wetland buffers. Klepper made it clear early on in the presentation that lessening wetland buffers was a decision made by the current commission before Kimley-Horn was asked to review and revise the plan.