- April 11, 2025
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The science of wetland buffers was up for debate among Manatee County commissioners for a second time, but the only real debate centered around the law.
In under an hour, a 5-1 vote at the April 3 land use meeting reversed a measure by the 2023 commission that cut wetland buffers from 30 to 50 feet down to the state minimum of 15 to 30 feet.
Commissioner Mike Rahn cast the lone nay vote because he’s worried the move will lead to a lawsuit against the county.
“Senate Bill 250 is going to come into play in this. It’s going to happen,” Rahn said. “I think we’re going to have some litigation over this.”
SB 250 is a disaster relief bill that prohibits counties within 100 miles of the landfall of Hurricane Ian or Hurricane Nicole “from adopting more restrictive or burdensome procedures to their comprehensive plans or land development regulations concerning review, approval, or issuance of a site plan, development permit, or development order before Oct. 1, 2024.”
Morris Hill, the acquisition and entitlement manager at M/I Homes, brought the issue of SB 250 and SB 2-C to the Planning Commission’s attention March 27.
SB 2-C extends the date from Oct. 1, 2024 to Oct. 1, 2026, so Hill questioned if the commission has the legal authority to revert the wetlands policy at this time.
Kara Koenig, environmental planning section manager for the county, argued that the buffer policy existed before SB 250 and was never removed from the Land Development Code.
Koenig reviewed the matter with the county attorney’s office, as well.
While there is no case law on SB 250, very few changes were made to the wetland buffer policy since the Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 1989, and no changes are being made now.
The reversion will only put back in place what existed in the Comprehensive Plan for over 30 years.
“From the development community, it’s not so much that we’re against wetland preservation,” Hill said. “It’s more so that we’re against the additional enhancements of that preservation, above and beyond the state and federal level.”
In 2023, over the course of two meetings from August to October, commissioners listened to a combined eight hours of public testimony that asked them not to make changes to the wetlands policy.
Citizens held up signs in the chambers that read "Don't do it" and “Stop the madness.”
Commissioner Carol Felts was only a citizen then. Her message to commissioners was that residents would vote in 2024 according to how they voted on the wetlands.
Felts' comments were prophetic, but deemed "out of order" in the moment, so she was escorted away from the podium by two bailiffs.
The only current commissioner to have voted on the issue in 2023 was Commission Chair George Kruse. He cast the one dissenting vote and was the only commissioner up for reelection in 2024 to keep his seat.
“It’s amazing that what I said came true,” Felts said.
Current commissioners Rahn, Amanda Ballard and Jason Bearden, along with former commissioners Ray Turner, James Satcher and Kevin Van Ostenbridge, sided in favor of the science provided by outside consultant Daniel DeLisi, who Kruse called “the quarterback for the losing team.”
DeLisi had previously provided expert testimony for developer Carlos Beruff in two separate lawsuits against Manatee County regarding its wetland buffer policy. Beruff lost both suits.
East County’s Chris McGuinness said if the county gets sued over its decision to reverse what the last board put in motion, the people have grounds to sue those 2023 commissioners and get their money back.
“We pay for any lawsuit they face,” McGuinness said. “They’re elected by us and are supposed to speak for us. Nobody was for (cutting wetland buffers) except the (developers) that might sue them now for going against it.”
Bearden has since said he made a mistake with his vote.
At the April 3 land use meeting, he offered the idea of Manatee County considering 100-foot buffers in the future.
