City Caves on Dunkin' Design

Last month, the Bradenton City Council approved plans for a Dunkin’ Donuts at the city’s eastern gateway on Manatee Ave, despite it being woefully incompatible with the special area plan devised for the historic neighborhood in 2015 and getting a firm recommendation against approval from the city’s lead planner. This month, things got even worse for the struggling neighborhood.

The last vote was for a zoning change that allowed the parcel–which had been slated to be a mixed-use commercial/residential component of the adjacent apartment complex called the Preserve at Riverwalk–to be used for the exact sort of free-standing commercial that the city said it was trying to move away from in that historic area, which welcomes westbound traffic into the city.

The rezone passed 3-1 (Councilman Roff absent) with only newly-elected Councilman Bill Sanders, whose ward the project resides in, dissenting. It passed with a small caveat proposed by Councilman Byrd that added a stipulation for an "aesthetically pleasing" facade that fit with the character of the community, which includes the Manatee Village Historical Park right across the street, andthe Curry Houses Historic District, which includes three of Bradenton's oldest homes, fully restored, just behind the property.

Wednesday’s vote was on the "design consideration," for which the applicant–a development team that includes NDC Construction, NS Engineering, and Hatfield Development–came back with a regular Dunkin’ Donuts and the previously promised "enhanced landscaping" and gazebo, claiming the corporation wouldn’t budge on the design of their store. So, the council pretended to be so impressed by the landscaping and gazebo–as if downtown’s foot traffic needs one more spot outdoors to congregate–it voted 5-0 to approve it.

Take a look at the 2015 renderings of what that corner was supposed to look like and the design concept submitted Wednesday. Be sure and remember to imagine the addition of enhanced landscaping and a gazebo.

As if local residents needed any further proof of who runs this community, they essentially saw a developer come forward and ask to put up something completely different than what was supposed to be there, a project that was pretty much exactly what the city said it was trying not to put in the area; hear the city’s lead planner tell council members that the rezone application was not consistent with the city's comprehensive land use plan; watch council members approve it anyway with a small caveat; see the developers defy said caveat, and see the council approve the project anyway.

The city, led by its elected officials, made bold promises to orchestrate a broad-scale reimagining of that boring and blighted gateway into something that would help revitalize a struggling neighborhood and its proud history. Despite the fact that it hadalready sacrificed Glazier Gates Park to allow the Preserve at Riverwalk's apartments to be built in the first place, it seemed to be moving in the right direction. That is until elected officials came up against the first developer who had other plans for the site.

Now, instead of a vibrant, walkable, mixed-use facade, the first corner people see as they enter the Friendly City will take on a decidedly more common and commercial feel with that same old, tiredFlorida stripmalllook that already pollutes far too much of our landscape. So much for progress. What will the City of Bradenton look like in both the near and distant future? It seems that will be for the developers to decide.