- April 29, 2025
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Lena Road ranked No. 1 on a list of District 5 roadway priorities, while improvements to Creekwood Boulevard from State Road 70 to 73rd Street ranked No. 1 on a list of projects to shelve for five years.
The rankings came from Manatee County staff members, who are currently working on the Capital Improvement Plan's annual update.
The Public Works department made a last minute addition to the April 15 commission meeting agenda, which offered 15 pages worth of information regarding projects that cover roadways, intersections, sidewalks and multi-use trails.
Commission Chair George Kruse said there wasn’t enough time to digest that amount of information and have a meaningful discussion on the spot.
Instead, commissioners will revisit the subject at their next meeting, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. May 6.
By then, commissioners will have received individual briefings and Public Works Director Chad Butzow said he should also have some funding information to add to the discussion.
Residents can voice their opinions in person or over the phone. For more information, visit MyManatee.org.
Staff positioned the Fort Hamer Bridge to be a major priority in the updated CIP.
The plan is to add a second span of bridge to parallel the current bridge to double its capacity from two lanes to four lanes.
Construction to widen Upper Manatee River Road to four lanes from the bridge to State Road 64 is underway and expected to be completed by fall 2027.
In October 2024, staff applied for a $61.6 million grant from the United States Department of Transportation. The county expects a response shortly as to whether or not the award will be granted.
If awarded, the money will go toward construction costs. Staff will still have to find funding for land acquisitions.
The state funded $5.5 million for the study and design of the bridge.
The Project Development and Environmental Study is expected to be completed this summer. Then, the project can move on to the design phase.
Lena Road, from State Road 64 to State Road 70, landed in the No. 1 spot under District 5 priorities and in the No. 10 spot on the countywide list of 17 "Staff Specific Suggestions for Prioritizing Roadways."
The project is still in the design phase. The CIP priorities include land acquisition, construction from 44th Avenue East to State Road 64 with a roundabout where Musgrave Ranch Road meets Brower Drive.
The plan is to upgrade the rural road to a two-lane urban divided roadway with an 18-foot wide median.
Lena Road and Lorraine Road were both added to a "deferred list" of projects during last summer's budget review.
The completion dates were moved out to 2030, but Ogden Clark, Public Works' communication coordinator, said they will be reviewed again this year to see if funding can be increased and the timelines can be moved up.
Widening the segment of Lorraine Road, between State Road 64 and 59th Avenue East, from two lanes to four is listed as the fifth priority for District 5.
The remaining three priority projects in District 5 are being constructed under agreements with Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, Lakewood Ranch's parent company.
One is for a multi-use trail along Bourneside Boulevard between State Road 70 and State Road 64, and the other two projects are roundabouts.
The roundabout on Bourneside Boulevard and The Masters Avenue is set to begin construction over the next few months and is estimated to cost $3.45 million.
In all three cases, SMR agreed to design and build the projects. The county will then reimburse SMR through impact fee credits.
The roundabout where University Parkway meets Deer Drive and Legacy Boulevard will likely start construction by the end of the year or at the start of 2026.
With all the projects in East County and Parrish slated as priorities, District 3 Commissioner Tal Siddique shared "a sentiment" on behalf of residents living in the western portion of the county.
"There's a general sense of inequity between the investment that residents are seeing between east and west county," he said. "How do I go back to an angry room full of residents and tell them the priority is East County when they don't even want the development in the first place?"
Carol Felts and Bob McCann, commissioners in the most eastern parts of the county, agreed with Siddique's sentiment.
However, Felts bigger concern is that road projects are moving targets. She said great ideas can become obsolete in six months.
Her example was that residents in District 1 complain regularly about traffic on 60th Avenue East, yet there are discussions about putting hotels in the parking lot of the Ellenton Premium Outlets.
Any plan for 60th Avenue East would have to go back to the drawing board if hotels are approved.
"We don't like the 'M' word. We don't want to say a building moratorium," Felts said. "But maybe we could have other types of moratoriums. We could have zoning moratoriums. We could have CIP moratoriums. There's a lot of things we could do."
For now, her plan is to go out and drive the roads before the next meeting.
Typically, neither commissioners nor residents want to hear that the county doesn't have the funds to proceed with a project.
However, Thomas and Diane Carter are elated the county wants to shelve its plans for Creekwood Boulevard.
Butzow noted a removal from the CIP doesn't mean the project will never get done.
Installing a roundabout at Creekwood Boulevard would have required the county to acquire land from the Carters, to which the couple claimed would have equated to a regulatory taking.
They've been fighting the project since its inception.
Diane Carter said their property includes a retention pond that controls flooding. Its removal would have also impacted bald eagles and wood storks on the property.
Capt. Thomas Carter expressed appreciation for Kruse and Commissioner Mike Rahn, who visited the couple's property and served as advocates for them.
"I fought the county, and I won," the captain happily sang to the tune of "I Fought the Law."
