Manatee County commissioners discuss Urban Infill plan

BRADENTON -- County Planning Chief John Osborne said work is continuing on the Urban Infill plan. They’re still in the utility coordination phase, he said, and they’re coordinating with cities for the edges.

They’re also working with the affordable housing committee and neighborhood services people.

”We are going to be having some detailed information coming back to you probably at the next work session,“ he said. ”We are against a hard deadline for the comp plan changes, obviously. We’re definitely working toward those.“

Whitmore asked if this had to do with Amendment 4, and Osborne said that was right.

”We’re going to work with the other cities’ comp plans to see where we want the infill built,“ she said.

Osborne said they are looking at the transition areas. ”So there’s a lot of coordination going on right now with the cities,“ he said.

Richard Bedford, chairman of the Planning Commission, said the transitioning was interesting because while cities may be trying to transition density down, the county could be trying to transition density up.

”It’ll be interesting to see how you put those two together,“ he said.

Osborne said they are working on that.

County Commissioner Joe McClash said the city has spent a lot of time and effort on its plans. ”I think it should be a starting point for us and our redevelopment plan,“ including doing something along U.S. 41.

An effort should be made for ”the biggest bang for the buck,“ McClash said, like around the mall areas.

Whitmore told Osborne to get with the city staff and have a meeting between the city and the county commissioners.

”Let’s get a plan,“ she said.

John Neal of Neal Communities said that as a builder of infill, they’ve been getting what he called ”schizophrenic“ input from the county.

They’re told to save the greenbelt and build in the urban core, he said. ”I just would like the county to consider in their overall plan to give the builders some direction or even some input because there’s a lot of risk associated with infill,“ Neal said. ”But it’s something that I think is important. We can’t build on the greenbelt forever, so we have to consider the core.“

McClash suggested something along the lines of the Encouragement Zone near the port, which would provide certainty and speed, and not having to go before the board.

”We’d certainly like to encourage getting you guys out of the greenbelts and back into the urban areas because it creates a bigger bang for the dollar,“ he said.

Whitmore said it seemed to be the consensus for the board that if they do infill, they don’t want them coming back to the board again and again, she said.

”Give them guidelines, like we do in the EZ zone, what they can do, and move forward with it,“ she said. ”As long as it’s within our rules, follow it administratively. I can understand the frustration.“