Palmetto -- Manatee County Commission Chairman Larry Bustle started Tuesday's workshop by saying, "This is the nitty gritty of what it means to rewrite the Land Development Code." The task at hand is 700-plus pages of line-item vetoes, omissions and replacements of verbiage more than 30 years old. The rewrite of the LDC is a reevaluation of what fits with Manatee County's future.

The proposed changes being discussed over the next four days will be an attempt to organize the code by updating the legal requirements, omitting duplications, contradictions and properly titling department heads.

The project is being performed by Littlejohn Engineering Associates and Land Development Code Consultant, Pat Tyjeski, delivered the presentation. 

All of the county commissioners, planning commissioners, property maintenance heads, and the county's legal team were in attendance, taking notes, making suggestions and fine tuning the War and Peace size document. Littlejohn will return the document to the BOCC, after reviewing suggestions brought-up by both the public and county officials, and legal scrutiny is performed. 

Of the five citizens who attended the meeting, three commented; seeking clarification to some of the defining terms and timelines. 

Today's discussion covered Chapters one and two: General Provisions; Administrative Procedures; Comprehensive Plan Consistency; Enforcement, Violations and Penalties; and Property and Structures.

The complete team will return to the Bradenton Area Convention Center each day, at 1:30 p.m. through Friday, throughout which they will review the entire proposed Land Development Code rewrite. The document is available on the county website, on PDF by chapter here.

related:

Guest Op/Ed: Land Development Code Changes Will Adversely Impact our Quality Of Life and Destroy Community’s Protection from Development