BRADENTON – At Thursday's BOCC Land Use meeting, members approved the proposed Manasara Corp./Tennessee Street Property Oasis, a 400-unit apartment development east of U.S. 301 on University Parkway next to the SCL railroad. For years, Manatee County officials have been claiming a shortage of rental properties, but two Manatee County commissioners found this wasn't the one they were looking for.
The 25.6 acre Plan Amendment site is located south of Soleil West, a single-family detached subdivision, and Soleil Condominium, a single-family attached project. To the west of the site is the SCL Railroad, a concrete batch plant and SRQ Park of Commerce.
After the presentation and a few praises from commissioners, Commissioner Charles Smith said he would have liked to see some affordable housing in the mix on a project this size. Smith said he knows the administrator and staff are working on increasing the number of affordable housing units throughout the county but hoped he would see something come before the commission in the 15 months he has been in office.
The applicant, Mr. Stephen Novacki, representing Picerne Development Corporation of Florida, requesting the Large Scale Map Amendment from M.U. (Mixed Use) to RES-16 (Residential-16 dwelling units per gross acre) said that the project was "market based" and they chose not to go for affordable housing.
Then Commissioner Robin DiSabatino commented on the use of that property for a development that size. The proposed site is in DiSabatino's district, and she has dealt with complaints of dust and sounds that come from the mix of industrial, manufacturing and residential. The site used to be a junkyard. DiSabatino said she would need to feel certain that complaints wouldn't appear if even more manufacturing returned to the area.
Criticism came quickly from the other commissioners, denouncing most of what DiSabatino and Smith had said. Smith asked if someone with the county was involved in the project. The answers he got were in the form of questions: What are you implying? and, What are you saying?
Ex-chairman of the planning commission, Richard Bedford, was sitting in the audience next to the applicant but no longer sits on the advisorial commission.
Commissioner Carol Whitmore and Chairman Vanessa Baugh suggested Smith was out of line. Whitmore scolded Smith for "embarrassing staff" and told him to not go any further. Smith said nobody was going to tell him what he can ask, and that he would continue to ask what he wanted as long as he was a commissioner.
The project was already approved to build 250 resident dwellings on the property, but the applicant was there to increase the density to R-16 and add 150 more dwellings. DiSabatino had a problem with that as well. The proposal to increase both size and amount was based on the applicant's assessment of profitability. DiSabatino didn't think it was the commission's job to tailor the rules to fit the pocketbook of the applicant.
After almost an hour of Whitmore, Benac and Baugh chastising both DiSabatino and Smith for having the nerve to complicate the issue by what they felt to be publicly embarrassing staff, which neither thought they did. Chairman Baugh led a motion to approve the project; it passed 5-2, with DiSabatino and Smith dissenting.
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