BRADENTON — A Comprehensive Plan text amendment intended to scale back Manatee County’s wetland protections is scheduled to go before the planning commission next week, on Aug. 10.
The item, Ordinance No. 23-66 Comprehensive Plan Text Amendment Wetlands Protection, is currently advertised on the county’s webpage for Public Hearing Notices. The notice was published on July 26. To read the notice, click here, or visit the county’s notices webpage.
The proposed changes will significantly loosen requirements for building adjacent to county wetlands and watersheds. The text amendments would remove many of the county's local-level regulations from the Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Codes, deferring rules for wetland buffers and other mitigation measures to the minimum that is required by the state.
The ordinance will impact the county’s comprehensive plan’s "Element 3 Conservation, Element 4 Coastal Management," as well as amend the county’s current local requirements for wetlands mitigation and buffers.
The planning commission is a seven-member citizen advisory board that was established under Florida statutes. It serves to make non-binding recommendations to county commissioners on matters relating to land use and development, including the adoption and/or amendment of the county’s comprehensive land use plan and land development code.
The planning commission meeting will be the first opportunity for members of the public to provide comments on the proposals. Written comments must be submitted to www.mymanatee.org/comment by Aug. 8 at 2:00 p.m. Members of the public who wish to submit written public comments must include their full names with their submissions.
Citizens can also appear in person to give public comment before the Planning Commission on the proposed changes to local wetland protections.
The meeting will be held on Thursday, Aug. 10, beginning at 9:00 a.m., at the Manatee County Administration Building, 1112 Manatee Avenue West, in BOCC Chambers, first floor. Click here to view the meeting agenda.
The Manatee County Department of Development Services releases an upcoming public hearings list roughly every two weeks. These lists include public hearing items and the tentative dates those items might go before the planning commission and county commission. The upcoming hearing lists also include a secondary list of public hearing items that are up-and-coming but have not yet been assigned a hearing date.
The tentative hearing list released on July 7 did not show the wetland protections text amendment as being “tentatively” scheduled to come before the planning commission anytime before Oct. 6. The wetlands item was also absent from the secondary list of items up-and-coming but without a hearing date.
However, when a tentative hearing list was released two weeks later on July 22, the wetland protections amendment showed as scheduled to go before the planning commission next week. The same list also showed that the wetland protections amendment is tentatively scheduled to be before the county commission for its transmittal hearing on Aug. 17—just one week after the item goes before the planning commission. The item then may return to commissioners for its final adoption as soon as Oct. 5, according to the most recently released upcoming hearings list.
In addition to the upcoming Planning Commission meeting, a BOCC regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 8 received an agenda update last week that included the addition of an item for commissioners to appoint new members to the Planning Commission.
Board members will fill two seats on the planning commission. One upcoming vacancy, which had been previously advertised by the county on July 21, relates to a seat whose member term expires in October. When the upcoming vacancy was first advertised, the deadline for interested parties to submit applications was set as Aug. 25. The second seat up for consideration is an active vacancy created when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Planning Commissioner Ray Turner to replace outgoing County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh.
On July 28, when the county issued another press release advertising for both planning commission seats, the previous upcoming vacancy that had already been advertised, as well as the vacancy created by Turner’s appointment to the BOCC—the deadline for application submissions for both seats moved up by three weeks, to Friday, Aug. 4.
County commissioners are now set to fill the vacancies just two days before the Planning Commission hears the proposed text amendments relating to wetland protections.
In a statement to TBT, the county's PIO said that the application deadline for the planning commission seats was moved up by the county in response to the immediate vacancy created on the advisory board by Turner’s recent appointment to the county commission.
“Because of that appointment, the deadline was revised in the news release that was updated July 28 so that the BOCC could vote and appoint the new Planning Commissioner at the Aug. 8 BOCC hearing. This will allow for a full Planning Commission at the Aug. 10 Planning Hearing,” the county explained in an email.
“The County Attorney’s office advised Development Services on the process that should be taken in light of the Governor’s appointment,” the statement concluded.
9 comments on this item
Only paid subscribers can comment
Please log in to comment by clicking here.
sandy
A community can be more restrictive than the state and federal regulations. It is recommended. Has staff looked at any possible impacts on the Community Rating System, a program that earns credits for being more restrictive and earns discounts on flood insurance policies?
Sunday, August 6, 2023 Report this
klmsinc
Thank you for the information but I went to Login using the link you have for Public Comment and it said it was invalid. Maybe you could help me out with this please and thank you
Sunday, August 6, 2023 Report this
Dawn Kitterman
@klmsinc - Thank you for letting us know there was an issue with the link. The link has been repaired. In the future, instructions for submitting written public comments for any agenda or agenda item can also be found by visiting the Manatee County Government website page for upcoming agendas:
https://agendaonline.mymanatee.org/OnBaseAgendaOnline/
Sunday, August 6, 2023 Report this
Charlene
Of course, they're trying to ram this stuff through with only the thinnest veneer of public transparency. One week to comment, you know they aren't going to read any of them.
Sunday, August 6, 2023 Report this
WTF
What we allow...will continue
It's amazing that all the folks that show up for public comment including local experts the Board generally ignores. Had these folks been supporting the developer back issue, magically these folks would be considered "experts".
Life under a good government is rarely dramatic; life under a bad government is always so.
Oscar Wilde
Monday, August 7, 2023 Report this
barbaraelliott
BOCC commissioners are going to approve changing to state requirement minimums to please developers who plushly pad their campaigns. They have the power to tighten local land use regulations. If they vote for state minimum standards on wetlands protection it will be to bend over to developers. No matter their party affiliation, officials with such sad ethics and morals MUST be voted OUT of office.
Tuesday, August 8, 2023 Report this
barbaraelliott
BOCC commissioners are going to approve changing to state requirement minimums to please developers who plushly pad their campaigns. They have the power to tighten local land use regulations. If they vote for state minimum standards on wetlands protection it will be to bend over to developers. No matter their party affiliation, officials with such sad ethics and morals MUST be voted OUT of office.
Tuesday, August 8, 2023 Report this
barbaraelliott
I cannot comment on the county comment link posted here because only meetings listed thru August 3 are posted. Is this a violation of open meetings law ehen online comments are invited but the county fails to post this meeting so citizens can comment? The deadline to post a comment is August 8, by 2:00 pm. Today is the seventh. So what's up with this new obstruction of our right to redress government?
Tuesday, August 8, 2023 Report this
barbaraelliott
Just called Manatee County to complain that the public comment line is not accepting comments because the wetlands meeting is not listed in the county website comments line. The comments are due by two pm today. Anyone who wants to comment online cannot do so. This should have been posted a minimum of seven days ago. This is a violation of public meetings law and carries criminal penalties. Now I have to file another open records complaint this time against the county instead of the City of Bradenton. Damn I am tired of you SOB's.
Tuesday, August 8, 2023 Report this