Change to Estates on Tillet Bayou plan fails

BRADENTON - The long saga of the Estates on Tillet Bayou continued on Tuesday as the County Commission voted down a motion to require that a road through the development terminate just short of Bayshore Drive.

A staff presentation by Lisa Barrett showed a new design for the site that would have deleted the connection to the road on Terra Ceia Island. Lot 24 in the development would face Bayshore Drive on the site of the connection, a cul-de-sac would have been included and Lot 24 would have access to Bayshore Drive.

Originally, the sole purpose of the motion was to be a discussion and vote on deleting the connector to Bayshore Drive, but issues related to stormwater and even flooding during a hurricane entered the debate. There had been concerns over what would happen to the bayou were too much stormwater to flow into it from impervious surfaces like roads, but Jim Dye, the attorney for Terra Ceia Vest LLC, the applicant, said that the original design that was presented and approved at the previous meeting took care of the stormwater issues.

Another issue raised was access to and from the development from Bayshore Drive, with residents saying that that side of Bayshore Drive floods first in a bad storm, so no one in the new development would even try to evacuate via the entrance on that road. There was also much debate about how separated the new development would be from the rest of Terra Ceia Island's community.

Residents favored the new plan, though the drawings showed the cul-de-sac intruding into wetlands.

"The motion to reconsider was to only deal with the road," said County Commissioner Joe McClash as the discussion wound down. "There was no caveat on the drainage. I brought up three issues: I brought up drainage, I brought up front loading and I brought up community character. I also stated we didn't have to rehash the facts because we already had all the facts that were presented so we didn't have to go through all the community character debates again."

He said he believed that the residents had spoken about how to make this development more compatible with their community and the way to do that was to cut off at Bayshore Drive. "I believe the motion on the floor is legally defensible," he said.

But commissioners Larry Bustle and Donna Hayes said the road would still have some use, with Bustle noting that the lack of an opening on Bayshore Road would isolate the residents of the new development, while Hayes said she didn't consider it an evacuation route and that she didn't feel comfortable not giving them another access their community.

Manatee County Port Authority

The commissioners, sitting as the Port Authority, approved 7-0 the motion for the South Port Intermodal Terminal, which came in $1 million less than the bid, according to executive director David McDonald.

McDonald asked for deferral on the financial adviser request, saying he'd bring it back for the July 28 meeting. He had introduced John White of Fifth Third Securities at the Port Authority meeting on June 18, but the commissioners had been questioned the lack of a request for proposal and bid at the time, and voted 6-1 to put it on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.

On Tuesday, the motion to defer passed 5-2.

Manatee County Civic Center Authority

Sitting as the Civic Center Authority, the commissioners voted 7-0 to approve the delegation of authority during extended periods with no Civic Center Authority meetings.

Manatee County Community Redevelopment Agency

Sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, the commissioners voted 7-0 to approve the delegation of authority during extended periods with no CRA meetings.