Call it Paradise and Kiss it Goodbye

Surely, every refuge has its price. But don't tell that to the Manatee County Commission. They believe the county's snowballing development is a blessing, that their pedal to the metal concrete expansion is going to take the county to never-ending prosperity. But there's trouble here in paradise, as the idolized development commissioners so expeditiously embrace seems certain to take the county to its knees.

It is not a stretch to think of Manatee County as paradise. Just take a stroll through the center of downtown to the docks, or a short drive to the pines, sand and surf at Coquina Beach; you get the feeling not all is spoiled by the overcrowding and high expense that has consumed most of the state of Florida.

The City of Palmetto is the only city that still lives up to the old Florida postcard image, with docks, eateries and century old homes. It is also where farming in Florida actually started. A century ago, ships used to pick up produce from the north side of the Manatee River, and take it to ports-of-call around the world. 

Not that Palmetto is stuck in the past; it's the first municipality in the state to incorporate eco-friendly street bricks (perforated to allow drainage), enabling street run-off to return to the ground instead of channeling it to a street drain where it then goes into Florida's waterways. Palmetto is looking to increase the amount of eco bricks throughout the city, in effort to deplete rain run-off and reserve groundwater.  

Bradenton can take claim to having the finest minor league stadium in the state – also the winter home of the Pittsburgh Pirates – and is surrounded by micro breweries, the Village of The Arts and mom and pop shops. 

Much of Bradenton's charm still remains, but its Mayor and City Council have grandiose ideas, that – much like those of the County Commission – consequently abandon localized areas, ensuing blight, failing infrastructure and basic city maintenance; a price, it seems, they are willing to pay to embrace new development. 

You would have to travel to Charleston S.C. or Savannah Ga. to find a community with the charm that is still within reach in Manatee County. Here, one can find all of the ingredients needed to feel sublime. But one thing is certain; if local leaders don't quit wheeling and dealing the county's resources away to predator developers, the charm is sure to perish. 

The City of Bradenton and the City of Palmetto are connected by two river bridges, forming the county's oldest hub. With the surrounding estuaries and proximity to the Gulf, they stand as two of Florida's finest river towns, and in many ways reflect some of that Charleston and Savannah style of charm. 

Florida has long been a magnet for grandiose developers and bigwig realtors that lack the keeper talents necessary to maintaining a sustainable environment -- good custodians are usually in short supply when opportunity knocks -- so historical and environmental impacts are often ignored.

"They paved paradise to put up a parking lot" - Joni Mitchell, 1970     

To me, boundless expansion and urban sprawl seems all too familiar. I was born and raised in Miami. Every year the number of classmates in school increased by a third, traffic too, and crime was always a growing issue. We watched the ground get painted with development after development until our water didn't taste like water any longer.

It would be difficult to find a city in Florida where the same hasn't happened – or isn't in an irreversible process to the same fate – but what is it going to take to stop the assault on Florida's resources by those who steadily plunder our state without conscience?

The method by which developers succeed at hijacking the state's resources is simple. They purchase the influence. It's no secret that one of the state's endangered species is a lawmaker or commission that isn't in some big shot developer's pocket.

With every development, further assault is committed on the state's groundwater, wildlife, rivers, estuaries and coastline, so much that they all lay in peril. But that doesn't stop the profiteers from trampling their reckless indiscretions upon the people in this county.

The rubber stamp approvals that keep coming from those who are paid well to protect the state's resources is nothing short of mutinous. 

"It's inevitable, more people are going to move here, and there is nothing that can be done about it," says Manatee County Commissioner, Betsy Benac, adding, "Get used to it." 

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves ..." - Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Benac epitomizes the problem as to why Manatee's paradise is in peril. She is a planner, and has proved repeatedly that such is her only talent. It is Benac's alpha control over the commission that endorses the greed and gluttony which lies at the heart of predatory development; selling the myth that bigger is better. 

Mega-developer Pat Neal has announced that he wants his phone number in the newspaper for all farmers and cattle ranchers to see, and for them to use it. Neal wants to make them an offer on their land so he can build homes for all of the baby-boomers around the country who might want to retire here. 

Most of Neal's plenitude has come from exploiting the recent recession, purchasing failing properties and foreclosures and building on those properties while getting reduced impact fees and being granted special requests to put more homes on each acre. Neal has contract plans for more than 5,000 houses to be built in the county today, and he is looking to build tens of thousands more. 

Schroeder Manatee Ranch (SMR) owns and operates Lakewood Ranch (LWR), almost 30,000 homes. SMR's owners say they are only half the way there in terms of the volume of their intended development. 

Currently, Lakewood Ranch is larger in land mass than the City of Bradenton, Cortez and the barrier islands combined. Recent census data shows LWR is one of the top 10 fastest growing communities in the U.S. 

Manatee Fruit land owners announced that they are requesting to build over 8,000 homes on their property in west Bradenton, and in addition, IMG -- the mega sports moguls -- bought some of the MF property, and are looking to build over 2,000 residential dwellings on that site as well. 

Carlos Beruff of Medallion Homes has contracts for over 5,000 homes and owns property that he bought, with rights, that allows him to build 5,000 more. This includes 2,500 resident homes on his property at Long Bar Pointe, which includes a hotel, convention center and, now, again, possibly the return of the plans for a proposed marina.

Beruff and company agreed on August 6, 2013 to drop the marina from his proposal, if his project was approved. The deal was made with County Attorneys Micky Palmer and Bill Clague at the helm, and now, they say Beruff is suing the county for $18 million on grounds that the marina was taken out of the mix illegally, and wants it back in the already approved project.

Beruff's marina is bound to destroy the last mature mangroves in Sarasota Bay. In addition, Beruff wants to dredge a half mile 80 ft. wide channel to get to that marina, through precious sea grass that incubates billions of the spawning fish that support the west Florida fishing industry, which threatens to devastate the century old fishing village of Cortez, just two miles away.

A handful of developers are robbing this county of a sustainable future.

County officials won't tell you how much of the cost the Manatee residents are obligated to absorb to actually bring the utilities (sewer, portable water, schools, etc.) to the properties which are slated to be developed – because, the money isn't there – and the price tag to do so could bankrupt the county.

One might think this kind of predicament would invite some precautionary measures, but not a chance, just the opposite. The Manatee County Commission is keeping its pedal to the metal at break-neck speed, approving development after development, in effort to cover-up the land development code mistakes made in the past.

If we continue to elect representatives that come equipped with a rubber-stamp that serves the dreams of developers, we will only have to adjust to the nightmare ahead and say goodbye to paradise.

The most important part of every car is its brakes. It might be high time we start pumping ours.