BRADENTON — After completing its review, the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) has issued the requested ERP major permit modification for the development site commonly known as Aqua by the Bay.
Project developer Carlos Beruff and an affiliated entity, Cargor Partners, submitted the permit modification application in Dec. 2023—roughly three months after the county commission approved the rollback of local wetland protection regulations in a 6-1 vote.
The large-scale development site is located along Sarasota Bay and El Conquistador Parkway in Bradenton.
After becoming aware that the permit modification application had been submitted to SWFWMD, TBT Publisher and former Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash addressed the commission to draw their attention to elements of the modifications being requested for the site.
During a BOCC meeting on Jan. 9, 2024, McClash shared his concerns with commissioners. Displaying an excerpt on the overhead, He read aloud from one of the documents submitted by Beruff and partners with the permit application.
“As shown on the construction plans, a gabion wall is being proposed in the uplands but is being proposed immediately landward of the wetland line in many cases. Therefore, the 25-foot average buffer is not being proposed,” the SWFWMD application document read.
McClash continued, “The buffer is not there. The proposed gabion wall is right on the wetlands, the uplands side of it. This is just common sense that you need to have a buffer.”
McClash was highlighting that a county consultant had previously argued during an Oct. 2023 BOCC hearing that deferring local wetland buffer requirements to the state minimums would mean that a 25-foot wetland buffer would be required for most development approvals.
However, the permit application showed that within months of the commission approving a comprehensive plan text amendment deferring wetland buffer regulations to state minimums, the well-known large-scale development site was requesting a modification approval to provide lesser wetland buffers (among other modifications) than were approved with the original permit issuance.
Aqua by the Bay is adjacent to Sarasota Bay—an Outstanding Florida Water (OFW). Sarasota Bay is an estuary of national significance and its designation as an OFW recognizes its exceptional ecological and recreational significance.
Responding to the information provided by McClash regarding the permit request, Commissioner George Kruse reminded his colleagues of the information they were given during the consultant’s presentation.
“We made a decision on this board,” Kruse said, “based upon information provided to us, and it’s just simply not true, and this is proof of concept that it was not true.”
Kruse added that he believed the policy to divert county wetland protection requirements to the state was approved based on the commission being provided with “misinformation.”
“We were told there would be a minimum buffer, this is proof right here—the very first application proposing to use that vote (to defer regulations to the state) does not propose any buffer, zero,” added Kruse.
When McClash first brought the application request to the BOCC's attention in Jan. 2024, several commissioners who voted to approve the rollback of the county’s wetland buffer requirements still served on the board.
In November 2024, three of those commissioners were replaced by Manatee County voters.
Commissioner George Kruse—who was the only commissioner to vote against amending the county’s comprehensive plan to defer wetland buffer regulations to state minimums—won his reelection bid.
Following the election, the newly formed board quickly got to work correcting some of the more unpopular actions taken by the previous board. Beginning in January 2025, commissioners moved to reinstate call-in public comments, revisit the raising of impact fees, and rescind the vote that deferred local wetland buffer requirements to state minimums.
Despite attempts to initiate a reversal of the wetland protection requirements, the process took several months to make any real headway.
Less than two weeks ago, the commission finally solidified its commitment to rescind the previous board’s action on local wetland protections, casting its first vote to transmit the corrective comprehensive plan text amendment to the state.
In a vote of 5-1, commissioners approved the transmittal—once adopted at a yet-to-be-scheduled adoption hearing—the comp plan text amendment will effectively revert the county’s wetland buffers to what they were before Oct. 2023.
However, the Aqua by the Bay permit modification application was already under review by SWFWMD, and on March 21 the agency issued a notice to Cargor Partners and Beruff that the request had been approved and a modified permit issued.
In an email to commissioners on April 8, McClash alerted the board of the state agency’s approval.
“Commissioners,” McClash’s email began. “Attached is a permit with plans that SWFWMD approved for what we know as Longbar Pointe, now Aqua. There are several concerns.”
Among the handful of listed concerns, McClash highlighted that the permit would allow for “no wetland buffers for most of the project” and the “existing 50-foot wetland buffer within the first phase would be eliminated.”
McClash concluded his email by adding, “I think this is an important issue to the County to consider options challenging the permit. The County would have 20 days to challenge the permit. Needs to be done around April 20th.”
To view SWFWMD ERP Permit Application number 884703 and its supporting documents as submitted by Cargor Partners VII - Long Bar Pointe, LLLP, otherwise known as Aqua by the Bay, click here and then select the “documents” tab.
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Bill
Please remember this when the rest of” Friends of Beruff county commissioners” are up for reelection and send them packing.
Tuesday, April 15 Report this
igobye3959
We must insist that the MCC fights this tooth and nail! The will of the voters is known and our Bay and it’s inhabitants deserve our support.
Wednesday, April 16 Report this
johnschussler
This proposed high end residential development is near the extended centerline of the main runway at SRQ. New homeowners will complain to the airport authority about aircraft noise. The runway was build in 1939, it can't be moved. New homes can be built elsewhere. The developer, Carlos Beruff is on the airport authority board.
Wednesday, April 16 Report this
David Daniels
Last week, the Bradenton Times correctly stated that the current county administration orchestrated “a fraud, and a deceit” in 2023 by claiming that the policy to remove wetland buffers was “county initiated.” The current administration silenced the county’s own employees and instead contracted with Carlos Beruff’s consultant to make the pitch that Commissioner Kruse said was“misinformation" and "not the truth." Now we'll suffer from the very real consequences of that misleading orchestration by the current administration. Beruff will be doing irreparable harm to Manatee County’s priceless natural resources. Despite hearing from voters who demanded that the board seek accountability for the administrator's fraud and deceit, this board yesterday chose to sweep the whole thing under the rug.Not a single commissioner stood up for truth and accountability. Additionally, from today's TBT reporting, we know that despite being informed on April 8, they deliberately ignored the opportunity to challenge Beruff’s raping of Sarasota Bay. The chair was determined to go home before lunch rather than even bring it up. You know what else was “misleading” and “not truthful? Every one of Kruse's “not developer controlled” campaign signs.
Wednesday, April 16 Report this
kat.houston
This proposal has sickened me since it was first proposed, 10 years ago? Maybe longer. I knew Mr. Beruff would get his way somehow. He’s a short sighted fool. He should NEVER have been allowed to buy there. He’s a lier and a thief. Shame on the commissioners who facilitated this project for their complicity in destroying protected wetlands. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. Just sickening!
Wednesday, April 16 Report this
Charles
Reversals of political corruption have begun in this area, let's advance it to this issue and the elections ahead — time to take back the appropriate role of the taxpayers — fight this; identify and support candidates who are not corrupt. It is up to the voters and the taxpayers if they just exercise the powers only they have. Stop the land deals given back to the financiers of political campaigns for puppets.
Saturday, April 19 Report this