Commissioners Move Forward with Land Acquisition Referendum

BRADENTON – At Tuesday's meeting, Manatee County Commissioners voted to authorize staff to work with the county attorney's office and the Trust for Public Land to prepare a resolution and ballot language for a community-driven request for a land conservation acquisition referendum to establish and preserve a balance between developed and undeveloped land in Manatee County.

The funding mechanism would be a 0.15 mill property tax (approximately $21 annually per average property value) for 20 years and authorization for a General Obligation Bond of up to $50 million. The purposes of the funding would include acquiring land for protecting drinking water sources, protecting the water quality of bays, rivers, and creeks.

Funds would also be used to conserve land to prevent polluted stormwater runoff from flowing into bays, rivers, and creeks, as well as to acquire and preserve fish and wildlife habitat, to provide natural floodwater storage to help reduce flooding, to conserve natural areas, provide parks, and to manage environmentally significant lands and parks.

The vote to move forward passed unanimously. Staff will now use board guidance to craft the language of the proposed referendum before bringing it back to the board for a final vote next month, following the board's summer recess. Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation presented to the board at Tuesday's meeting.