Commissioners Approve Comp Plan Text Amendment for Transmittal to Reinstate Local Wetland Buffer Requirements

BRADENTON — During a Thursday BOCC land use meeting, Manatee County Commissioners approved the transmittal of a comprehensive plan text amendment that would reverse a prior commission’s previous action and reinstate the county’s wetland protection buffer requirements.

A previous comp plan amendment approved in 2023 reduced local provisions to mirror state minimum requirements.

Manatee County Environmental Planning Section Manager Kara Koenig presented the item and summarized the staff report to commissioners.

Though Koenig’s presentation was slightly less detailed than the one she provided to the county’s planning commission last week, information concerning the scientific support for the effectiveness and importance of wetland buffers for protecting local watersheds, estuaries, water bodies, and wetland habit remained consistent with last week’s presentation.

The presentation inspired some commissioners to question whether the board should consider discussing more protective wetland provisions for consideration in the future. 

Prior to the 2023 action to reduce local wetland protection requirements, Manatee County’s land development regulations required a 30-foot wetland buffer for development adjacent to isolated wetlands and 50-foot buffers for development within watershed protection overlays or adjacent to Outstanding Florida Waterways or flowing waters.

The state standards are less protective, with a 25-foot average and 15-foot minimum requirement, and 50-foot buffers required adjacent to Outstanding Florida Waterways. State provisions also provide, in certain instances, that a zero-foot wetland buffer may be required if impacts to the wetland areas by development are offset through mitigation.

The Ordinance approved for transmittal to the state on Thursday—Ordinance No. 25-14—if adopted, would reinstate the county’s previously existing requirements and rescind the action taken in 2023 that deferred local wetland protection requirements to the lesser state standards.

Commissioners voted 5-1 to approve the transmittal with Commissioner Mike Rahn voting in opposition and Commissioner George Kruse absent.

The transmittal sends the text to the state for review. Once the state returns the review and feedback, an adoption hearing will be scheduled, and the Board of County Commissioners will need to hold a second vote to formally adopt the reversion Ordinance.