Aqua by the Bay Land Use Meeting to be Postponed, Legal Questions Loom

BRADENTON – The continuation of the August 23 special land use meeting for Carlos Beruff’s controversial Aqua by the Bay project, originally scheduled for Friday, Sept. 29, will be continued until the following Tuesday, October 3, at the request of the applicant. The potential actions of the board at the upcoming meeting, for which there will be no public comment, have raised concerns of legal challenges from both sides.{{more }}

Once it became clear that the votes to pass a motion to approve the application for a general development plan were not there by the close of the last meeting, some bargaining between commissioners and the applicant took place, and the motion was withdrawn. The meeting was then continued, with the expectation expressed that the applicant would come back proposing the discussed concessions on limits to the largest high-rise condos and a prohibition on motorized boats in a controversial canal that would be dredged behind the mangrove forest, separating it from the mainland.

Secondly, the board has said that public comment, which was closed just prior to the discussion of the exactions, would remain closed when the meeting is continued. The applicant will essentially come back to the board with proposed changes based on what was discussed after public comment but before the motion to approve the general development plan had been withdrawn. By not allowing the public to weigh in on what would essentially be a different application than the one that was before commissioners at the time public comment was closed, the board would also open itself up to legal challenges from citizens and opposition groups.