Budget approval could delay Manatee County road improvements

No matter what happens, Manatee County officials assure residents that construction on Lena Road will continue until drivers can get from State Road 70 to State Road 64. 

However, several other East County road projects are up in the air — as far as completion dates — until Manatee County’s FY2025 budget is adopted by the commission on Sept. 17. 

Public Works Director Chad Butzow delivered commissioners with a list of “deferred projects” from the FY2025-2029 Capital Improvement Plan in August.

The transportation projects range from safety studies that haven’t been started yet to decade-long road projects that are underway. 

“There’s absolutely nothing on that list that made me think we’d have traffic issues if we made that decision (to defer projects) because staff already had flushed that out,” Commissioner Ray Turner said. “There was a lot of careful thought put into those choices.” 

Turner said constituent concerns were also taken into account when considering which projects to put on a deferred list. 

Tom and Diane Carter celebrated when Commissioner George Kruse told them that improvements to Creekwood Boulevard landed on the list. A proposed roundabout at 73rd Street East would have impacted their backyard.

Creekwood Boulevard was supposed to begin construction in August. 

Among the over $221 million worth of deferred projects, two are major, long-term road improvements on Lorraine Road and Lena Road that have been ongoing for years. 

“Most of our bigger projects are done in phases,” Kruse said. “If you try to do a $100 million project in one fell swoop and bid that out, you have to put aside the $100 million. If you do it in four $25 million bites, you only have to put aside $25- to $50 million, depending on the segments being worked on.”

Work on Lorraine Road began in July 2018 and isn’t scheduled to be complete until October 2030. Kruse said the road is still actively being worked on, but there are segments that won’t be done “as substantially” as the rest.

The total anticipated cost to widen the 2.83-mile segment of Lorraine Road between 59th Avenue East and State Road 64 from two lanes to four is approximately $66 million. Designs include a raised median, sidewalks in both directions and 7-foot buffered bike lanes. 

Construction also includes drainage improvements, designating stormwater ponds, two bridge replacements, utility modifications and signalizing 59th Avenue East. $46,566,865 of the $66 budget has been placed on the deferred list. 

Information Outreach Manager Bill Logan denied the East County Observer’s request to interview Butzow for specifics on which items would be deferred. Logan said questions can’t be answered before the budget is adopted because everything is still a proposal until then. 

Both Turner and Kruse confirmed that connecting State Road 64 and State Road 70 by way of Lena Road is still happening. 

They said while $23,395,435 million of the project is on the deferred list, that will not delay drivers getting from Point A to Point B. 

“Lena was supposed to be, and eventually will be expanded and become more of a substantial thoroughfare, like a four-lane road with sidewalks and some trees,” Kruse said. “It was going to be more of a Lakewood Ranch Boulevard kind of thing. That’s what’s getting pulled back.”

Kruse said the biggest missing piece within the physical connection was the roundabout at 44th Avenue, and that’s already funded through the 44th Avenue extension project. 

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Only one East County project was removed completely from the Capital Improvement Plan, instead of being deferred — an operational and safety improvement study for Uihlein Road.

Improvements to Verna Bethany Road and Upper Manatee River Road also were put on the deferred list. 

According to the project sheet, construction on Verna Bethany Road was set to begin in October and was estimated to cost $4,578,505. The project includes installing a roundabout at the intersection of State Road 70. 

Upper Manatee River Road started construction in August. It, too, will face delays if the budget passes. Construction will continue on with the exception of two bridge replacements, one at Mill Creek and one at Gates Creek. The total cost is $4,440,000.

So why are all these projects on the verge of being deferred? Some residents and Kruse said it’s because the commissioners made a multimillion dollar mistake. 

“The commissioners didn’t bring enough money in,” Savanna resident Louis Hendrickson said. “They had a chance to go above the 50% increase on impact fees, which was recommended (by Benesch, the firm that updated the impact fee study in 2023)."

There are different categories of impact fees that developers pay, but transportation impact fees ensure the roads can support the residential or commercial development being built.

The state allows a maximum increase of 50% of any impact fee over the course of four years, unless the county requests special circumstances. Several counties have done just that or are in the process of doing so. 

During the commission meeting on Aug. 8, Kruse said all-Republican boards in Citrus, Charlotte and Lake counties opted for special circumstances.

News reports show that Hernando and Alachua counties raised impact fees over 100%, and the Polk County commission approved an “extraordinary circumstance study” in August. 

Kruse estimates the lost revenue at over $500 million and said it's not an amount that can be found anywhere else. 

“That’s way more than anything we can get from Vern (Buchanan) or Tallahassee or gas taxes,” he said. “That was the biggest piece, and the rest of the board refused to collect those dollars. So, they effectively refused to build that infrastructure.” 

After the vote, Turner and Commission Chair Mike Rahn said the projects would still be funded, and most projects would only be delayed a year or two. 

Turner cited a prior reallocation of CIP projects that had nothing to do with the current board, but they now have to deal with. He used the Fort Hamer Bridge as an example of another inherited “challenge.” When the bridge opened in 2017, it was already at capacity. 

Impact fees are decided and cannot be increased for another four years. However, the public can still offer input on the deferred project list at the Sept. 12 land use meeting. The final public hearing is on Sept. 17 when the budget is scheduled to be adopted.