The all new and much improved Manatee Planning Commission

If you happen to be a long-time reader of this column, it seems doubtless you’ve heard me refer to the Manatee County Planning Commission as a rubber stamp for the development community. In recent years, there has been some improvement in willingness to push back and, at times, even to be downright critical of developers' proposals, and I’ve celebrated that fact on numerous occasions. This board, however, finally has the potential to realize an ideal version of the non-binding advisorial board.

I was worried that when the planning commission lost Cindy Kebba and Paul Rutledge—its two members who proved most willing to be adversarial with the development community, despite their respective places within it—we might be headed back toward darker days. Prior to their time on the commission, there had not been even two board members with the sand to go against the grain since Al Horrigan and Matt Bower served together briefly in the twenty-teens.

Bower is back on the commission, and his thoughtful, measured approach to dissecting applications and representing the community's best interests in his votes is refreshing. The commission has also gained an enormous amount of institutional knowledge regarding Manatee County development in Rob Brown.

Brown served as Manatee County Environmental Program Manager for 34 years, including during the development of the county's comprehensive land use plan. The public comments Brown offered during the wetland issue would have been more than enough for an above-board county commission to know it was being led astray by special interests, had that board not been well aware it was rubber-stamping the wishes of Big Development in the first place.

The board also gained 32-year-old Alyssa Gay, who cut her political teeth in 2024, with an impressive showing in a crowded Republican primary for the District 72 Florida House seat that former Manatee Planning Commission Chair Bill Conerly eventually won. Conerly’s presence on the commission is missed chiefly by developers, whom he sided with just about every time he didn’t have to recuse himself for a conflict of interest.

While Gay does not have Conerly’s development-related experience, she adds a welcome dose of enthusiastic curiosity reflected in her willingness to ask questions whenever she feels she needs a better handle on the subject at hand. The result is often a better debate and dialogue to follow, which is key to each member casting informed votes.

As I noted, the planning commission is non-binding. When applications later come before the Manatee County Commission, those board members are made aware of its recommendation as well as its concerns. In the past, that recommendation was often used by lesser boards as both sword and shield. During some unpopular votes, county commissioners would point to the recommendation (especially if developers managed a staff recommendation as well) as a reason not to go against expert advice. When the board didn’t go with the flow, as was the case with the wetland vote, they’d shrug it off as just advice.

The two boards shouldn’t always agree any more than individual commissioners on either board should agree with each other. Ideally, a wide range of opinions and perspectives should lead to the sort of robust debate that tends to yield the best results. That might seem elementary, but it’s rarely been the case in my 16 years of covering Manatee County Government. So, when I watched Thursday’s planning commission meeting, I felt something I don’t experience in this job very often: hopefulness. 

The planning commission was tested during that meeting when a controversial development proposal in east county was brought before it. It was a classic case of descendants of agricultural families wanting to cash out on farmland by selling it off to home builders, pitted against the surrounding community, which has no interest in seeing the intense development of subdivisions spoil their quality of life by way of significantly increased traffic and runoff from disrupted wetlands and homes built at higher elevations.

There is also the matter of one of our few remaining scenic canopy roads (Zipperer Road, off of SR 64 E), which would be, for all intents and purposes, destroyed by the developments, should the rezones from Ag, one unit per five acres, to Planned Development Residential with urban fringe, three units per acre, be approved. Developers and the families pointed out that such a change would be consistent with the future land use designation assigned to the area when Manatee County created its comprehensive land use plan in 1989. Residents have pointed out that much has changed since then, and they could not be more correct. 

Brown gave an outstanding explanation as to why he couldn't support the approval, and, again, he actually worked on the comp plan when it was created. Unfortunately, Commissioner Gay was absent on Thursday, and Bower had to leave the meeting early. John DeLesline and Lorraine Prosser, veterans on the board who have reliably sided with developers, and Scott Ziegler (who was appointed to serve out the remainder of Monaca Onstad's term when she relocated to Sarasota County) voted in favor of approval, with Brown and Bruce Stamm dissenting. 

I do not believe the planning commission would have voted to recommend approval if another commissioner were present, nor do I believe it will be approved by our county commission when it comes before the board on January 8.  It simply isn't compatible with the area. Despite all the assurances that the stormwater will be properly managed and traffic won't be a problem, such claims merely defy common sense. I am also confident that the BOCC will continue to improve the planning commission as terms expire, and it has more opportunity to cull it of members who bring little more than that old rubber stamp to the meetings.

Meanwhile, bravo to the new commissioners who are bringing something to the board that it has long lacked: genuine concern for the best development outcomes with all parties considered, especially the existing residents of Manatee County and the way of life they have bought into and continue to fight to preserve.

Editor's note: Due to a system error, this article was briefly published before it was complete and has been updated.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch's 2015 novel, A Long Road Home, was recently released in its third edition. His other books can be found here. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.