Planning Commission Recommends Denial For Aqua by the Bay

BRADENTON – On Thursday, the Manatee County Planning Commission voted against recommendation to approve Carlos Beruff’s Aqua by the Bay project before it goes back before the Manatee County Commission this Wednesday.

The application, which requires many exceptions to the county’s comprehensive land use plan, had come before the advisorial commission on April 4, when it squeezed by on a 3-2 vote. That vote came after county staff had incorrectly presented at least 24 high-rise buildings as being only 2. The incompatibility of the buildings along with issues related to dredging were the chief concerns of the four commissioners present.


Glen Gilbilina, a fixture at local government meetings, criticized an application that was short on details amid such widespread discord. Former Manatee County Commissioner and TBT publisher Joe McClash (speaking on behalf of Suncoast Waterkeeper), who was on the BOCC when the land’s original development order was approved in 2004, called it "a general plan without details" and said the wall of high rises that would result from the requested height exemptions would "destroy the waterfront vista."

McClash reasoned that both the original height exceptions (a handful of high rises staggered at two, three and four stories) as well as the 65-foot limit on Longboat Key, made for a clear standard as far as shoreline height. "I would urge you to still use this standard for compatibility," said McClash, while also noting that the proposed canal was, by definition, dredging, which the comp plan restricts in a coastal planning area when it's not for appropriate water-dependent use.

Dr. Randy Edwards also attacked the applications incompatibility with the comp plan on areas of dredging, wetland buffers and height. Edwards, one of the most knowledgeable local experts on the subject, gave a flurry of reasons why the application didn't pass the muster. Then he channeled the late Johnnie Cochran and laid down the best one-liner of the meeting, telling the board, "If the plan does not comply, you must deny!"

Commissioners wrestled with a staff recommendation that did little to address public concerns, stretching the definition of compatibility well beyond its usual meaning.

Commissioner Matt Bower asked how approved height at IMG Academy and Lake Flores–both of which the applicant had held up as neighbors with nearly identical buildings–could be used to prove compatibility, when neither presented that height (or volume) on the shoreline. Bower was told by staff that compatibility didn’t mean the same or even similar but whether it was felt that surrounding communities could survive such a change. What was meant by survival wasn’t noted.

Commissioner Al Horrigan just couldn’t get passed the dredging, which he said clearly violated the comp plan, even if the applicant wasn’t calling the process dredging. After a number of rebuttals on both sides, Bower made the motion to recommend that the county commission deny all requests.

Bower ran down the laundry list of issues, inconsistencies and concerns and said "for all of these reasons" the commission had no choice but to recommend against staff’s recommendation. "Mr. Beruff will build something and it will be wonderful, I’m sure of it," said Bower. "That’s what he does, and he’s a brilliant man, there’s no question about that. He just can’t build this,“ he added, looking at the application that was in his hands.