Bradenton Planning Commission Approves Changing Glazier Park Area Properties from Medium Density to Urban Village

BRADENTON –The City of Bradenton's Planning Commission on Wednesday approved an application for amending a small-scale comprehensive map plan for two parcels at 1205 and 1219 2nd Avenue East for the proposed Villages of Riverwalk residential project, from 'Medium Density Residential' to 'Urban Village' zoning.

Christopher Gratz, of the city's Department of Planning and Community Development, said that the proposed amendment "boils down to a map clean-up." Riviera Southshore, a high-rise condominium project that was approved for the proposed site nearly a decade ago before running into hurdles and eventually collapsing last year, had been approved for downtown mixed use, Gratz said. Following review of the new Villages project, Gratz added, "(We) insisted that the applicant do a map clean-up for us and submit this application, so that this could be changed to Urban Village–consistent with the rest of the project."

Planning Commissioner Richard Whetstone asked for confirmation that no additional lot usage would be changed by making the approval, and that "we're just restoring what had originally been approved in original development plans." Gratz, said in a response, "That's correct."


Diane Weldon, a resident living on 1212 2nd Avenue East, stated concerns about the area needing increased police protection and seeing increased traffic should the development go through. "During the season, you're going to need a lot more police protection and a lot more ambulances because there's going to be considerably more accidents," said Weldon.

Planning Commissioner Diane Barcus stated repeatedly during the meeting that the only reason for the meeting was to address the zoning for the site, and all other concerns should be relayed at the next city council meeting, when a public hearing on the project will be held.

Tim Polk, Director of Planning and Community Development, said, "One of the things that we tried to do when we made changes to our land use regulations and to our zoning classifications, is that we wanted to stress that (an urban) village would be something we would try to put in a lot of the developments that are coming under redevelopment." Polk later added that the city's ideas of an 'urban village' such as Villages at Riverwalk was to "retain the whole village character of not only a new development but also redevelopment."

The vote to change the zoning was approved 4-0.