City Council Votes to Object to County's Objections Over Planned Annexation

BRADENTON – A dispute over the Joint Planning Commission's recent annexation of nearly 9.5 acres of property progressed at Wednesday's Bradenton City Council meeting, when a motion to respond to objections from the county was passed unanimously.

The Joint Planning Commission recently approved bringing the property, located at 1016 64th Street Court East, into the City of Bradenton, per its owner's request. The JPC is made up of members from the Palmetto City Commission, the school board, the Bradenton City Council, and the county commission. Council member Gene Gallo said, "I left that meeting, and I think everybody else did with the exception of maybe the county, that this was going to be a no-brainer."

The county has sent the city a letter with stated reasons as to why it objects to the annexation.

Gallo read off some of those objections: That surrounding neighborhoods were not notified by mail about the planned annexation; that the proposed future land use designation under the city's comp plan is Suburban Commercial Corridor, in contrast with the county's current future land use designation, Residential-3; and that the change, according to the county, would result in "significantly greater density."

Gallo said that until the objections in the letter are addressed, the county would be unwilling to give its needed approval of the annexation. But he argued that concerns that the objections were based on–such as whether the city would be able to give reasonable and quality service to the area –were not warranted. He said that the city's plans for the property are still undecided, and that the planned annexation was not unique to any of the city's previous one.