Long Bar Pointe LLLP — the Carlos Beruff-Larry Lieberman partnership working toward a 262-acre mitigation bank on Sarasota Bay with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the past two years — dropped its DEP permit application.
The mitigation bank was to run alongside the renamed development, now Aqua By the Bay, a 529-acre, 3,200-home mixed-used development 5 miles from Cortez.
Aqua is under review by Manatee County development planners.
Bradenton attorney Ed Vogler filed a Sept. 2 notice of withdrawal on behalf of the company in an ongoing DEP appeal.
The appeal was filed in June by environmental groups and community activists, including the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage, Suncoast Waterkeeper and former Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash.
McClash and the nonprofits challenged the DEP’s intentions to issue the mitigation permit, which were announced April 28.
An administrative law judge had been set to hear the challenge Oct. 4-7.
— Kathy Prucnell
See the Sept. 14 edition of The Islander for expanded coverage.