Beruff's East River Ranch Rebuked by Planning Commission

MANATEE COUNTY – Developer and political powerbroker Carlos Beruff's East River Ranch project went before the Manatee Planning Commission Thursday. The project sought to rezone nearly 1,400 acres from General Agriculture to Planned Development Mixed Use with building heights as high as five stories. However, such an intense development in a rural part of the county was too much for even the typically pro-development board to support.

The project, which is beyond the county's future development area boundary, calls for 5,378 units along with 900,000 s.f. of commercial space, 300,000 s.f. of office space, and another 300,000 s.f. for "mini-warehouse uses." Last month, the Manatee County Commission voted to transmit a comp plan amendment that would change the zoning from one unit per five acres to 3 units per acre, along with a thoroughfare plan that would include a controversial road through the development. Those votes will come back before the BOCC once the state has had a chance to provide comments.

Thursday's vote was for the rezoning of the property. The planning commission is an advisory board that makes non-binding recommendations to the BOCC. While county staff advised that "the proposed rezone and general development plan applications and related Specific Approval requests, can be found to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and in compliance with the applicable provisions of the Land Development Code," two of the four commissioners present voted not to recommend approval, while two voted in favor of the recommendation, causing the motion to fail in a draw.

Beruff can now either revise the plan and seek a recommendation for approval or hope that his influence with the county commission will be sufficient to secure an approval without a recommendation from the planning commission.