A predated order from the governing board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District may be the writing on the wall for the shores of Anna Maria Sound — but environmental activists vow to continue the fight.
Issuance of a stormwater system permit to Harbor Sound developers was expected by a board vote at an Aug. 25 meeting in Tampa, which was after press time for The Islander.
The Swiftmud permit is for four homes on 3.46 acres, the associated fill, a retaining wall, vehicle access and related facilities, among the wetlands on the north side of Perico Island as proposed by a land trust controlled by Pat Neal of Neal Communities.
The development would be on the north side of Manatee Avenue, opposite the Perico Club, 96 homes built in 1984-92 by Neal and his father, according to Neal, and 114 acres on the waterfront donated by Neal to Manatee County. It opened in 2014 as Neal Preserve.
Controlling the land for 33 years, Neal said he’s been planning the Harbor Sound houses for his children on the remaining 40 acres on Perico Island.
“I trust this process. I trust the good faith of the board. I think the facts and law will prevail. I trust the staff of the district, the original decision, and that we will prevail,” Neal said.
Challenging the permit are petitioners: former Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash, Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage and ManaSota-88, and intervenors, Sierra Club and Suncoast Waterkeeper.
“We have to be optimistic that the governing board will do the right thing and adopt the administrative law judge’s recommendations. Although there’s a lot of developer influence on the board, the law is on our side,” said McClash, who represents the petitioners.
Barbara Hines, vice chair of ManaSota-88, blamed the permit status on “a very well-connected developer.”
She said, “I’m disappointed that the Swiftmud staff is suggesting that the board ignore the administrative law judge’s well-reasoned decision.”
The predated order — sent to both sides by the governing board’s managing attorney the week before the vote — concluded that the project would sufficiently mitigate, reduce and eliminate the adverse impact to wetlands and other surface waters.
Not so, say others.
Mangroves will be destroyed, the shoreline will erode and wildlife habitats and fishery production will be endangered, according to Ralf Brookes, attorney for Sierra Club and Suncoast Waterkeeper.
Brookes and McClash agree with Hines that Swiftmud’s governing board would be wrong to throw out facts found by the independent administrative law judge, Bram D.E. Canter.
After a three-day hearing that included the testimony of nearly a dozen witnesses, Canter ruled June 25 the project was not in the public interest.
McClash said the proposed order substitutes the developer’s facts for those found by Canter and “what you have is the fox guarding the henhouse.”
Neal was part of Gov. Rick Scott’s transition team, in charge of reorganizing state-run facilities, and the Swiftmud governing board comprises Scott appointees, including developer Carlos Beruff of Medallion Homes, an area developer.
Neal stressed, however, he had “no part in the employment of the current board” and said he has won numerous conservation awards.
The petitioners filed to stop Neal’s project a year ago, after Swiftmud issued a permit allowing the removal of exotic vegetation along the shore.
Brookes said the developer is looking to destroy “the highest quality of wetlands and mangroves” when there is “plenty of upland” for the planned construction of four homes.
McClash called it “the greed factor.”
The environmental attorneys say permitting the project would set a bad precedent and criticized the mitigation Swiftmud requires in exchange for the project’s wetland destruction.
McClash interpreted the required mitigation credits as a $100,000 developer contribution to a bank in Cockroach Bay.
“It doesn’t help Cortezians with impacts to their fisheries production” and “doesn’t help the wildlife of Anna Maria Sound and Cortez,” said Brookes.
Neal estimated the project’s wetland activity at 7/10 of an acre. He defended the Cockroach Bay mitigation because it’s in the Tampa Bay system, the same body of water as Anna Maria Sound, and as providing “more quality benefits.”
“On its face, it doesn’t make sense to allow mitigation in Hillsborough County for something they’re doing here in Manatee,” McClash countered.
As for setting precedent, Brookes said, “If they allow these, there will be others that come along.”
McClash agreed, saying the decision will set a precedent for Long Bar Pointe, a proposed mixed-use development of 1,000 single-family homes, 2,500 multi-family homes, a hotel, 300-berth marina on 463 acres near El Conquistador Parkway on Sarasota Bay. The developers, including Beruff, propose to remove coastal mangroves and dredge a channel.
“To see this many environmental groups come out to challenge a permit, it’s very unusual,” McClash said, adding it’s important to protect the “little regulation left” designed to preserve natural resources.
McClash and Brookes agreed with the ALJ decision that pointed out Harbor Sound “resembles the kind of project that was common in the 1960s and 1970s in Florida, before the enactment of environmental regulatory programs, when high-quality wetlands were destroyed by dredging and filling to create land for residential development.”
At the Aug. 25 governing board meeting, a 20-minute argument was to be allotted to the petitioners and intervenors in between time slots for the land trust and the district, which has sided with the Neal trust.
If the environmental watchdogs don’t prevail, McClash and Brookes said they’re aiming to appeal the permitting decision to the state’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.
McClash said they need the community’s support.
“It’s a David and Goliath battle,” McClash said of the continued struggle against Neal, “who makes millions of dollars off developments.”
In addition to the Swiftmud permit, the project needs a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetlands permit.
“And it’s my understanding that they have problems with it,” Brookes said.
The Harbor Sound development began drawing detractors when the city of Bradenton approved seawalls and other improvements inconsistent with its comprehensive plan and land-use rules, according to McClash.
The city plat approval is awaiting the Swiftmud and Corps permits, he added.