Uncertainty comes along with a recent developers’ plans for high-rise condos on Sarasota Bay.
Two documents were provided to county planners by King Engineering Associates Inc. May 17 in response to Manatee County commissioners’ requests for the number, location and height of the residential high-rises.
The mixed-use project is proposed for 529 acres, south of Cortez Road on Sarasota Bay, north of the IMG Golf Academy and southeast of Cortez.
According to Nicole Knapp, county planning section manager, Misty Servia sent an eight-page height analysis and a one-sentence revision to a proposed ordinance that would approve the large-scale development on behalf of developers Carlos Beruff and Larry Lieberman of Long Bar Pointe LLLP and Cargor Partners VIII — without a cover letter.
The Beruff-led team is looking for the Manatee County Board of Commissioners’ approval for 2,894 homes and 78,000 square feet of commercial space and a 191-acre rezone.
According to Stu Smith, a local Sierra Club and Suncoast Waterkeeper representative, the developers’ height analysis is “a lot of mumbo jumbo” that doesn’t provide answers.
The developers’ analysis states a maximum of four 145-foot buildings are planned. It also indicates a second type of building of up to 95 feet — without designating how many or where they would be built.
The one-sentence revision doesn’t account for the number or whereabouts of buildings to be constructed above the county’s 35-foot height restriction.
Servia declined comment when asked to further explain her submission.
Smith believes the analysis and the new Beruff-backed statement keeps the developers’ plan for high rises up in the air and under the radar.
The developers give only a general location for high rises in a pink-colored section on the general development plan, “about as close to the water as they can get,” he said.
The proposed stipulation would “enable a violation of the land development code,” Smith added.
According to the LDC, the applicant “shall provide” conceptual plans for the high rises.
“The word ‘shall’ means there’s no wiggle room here,” he said.
Smith predicted BOCC Chair Betsy Benac “would not be happy” with the developers’ submittals.
The commissioners’ requests for details came May 4 after Benac called out an error in a staff report, which may have led people to believe developers had proposed only two high-rises — a 75-foot five-story and a 145-foot-tall building of 13 stories.
Staff, Beruff and developer attorney Ed Vogler agreed at the May meeting that two types of buildings at those heights were proposed — not two buildings.
Developer documents filed with the Southwest Florida Water Management District for a state permit approved in April show 24 high rises.
The county commissioners, who’d received a 3-2 recommending vote from the planning commission, stopped short of voting May 4, fearing the planning commission may have based its vote on erroneous information.
Tentative dates for the next Aqua hearings are July 13 before the planning commission and Aug. 16 before the BOCC.
According to Knapp, the planners may still ask the developers for more information.
Beruff and Lieberman first proposed the property as Long Bar Pointe but were turned down by the county in 2013. The developers reincarnated Long Bar as Aqua By The Bay in 2015.
The developers sued the county after its first rejection, challenging the county’s coastal policies as unconstitutional takings, but lost in February in the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
More than 1,000 people protested Beruff’s first attempt to skirt Manatee County’s coastal authority at the Bradenton Area Convention Center in 2013.
On May 4 at the county commission chambers, an estimated 250-300 people attended the six-hour meeting.
Aqua by the bay is and will be a large Disaster!!!l Also the West Bay Boat issue to rotten. How have the council kept the police chef around this long ???? Neil Hammer 6200 Flotilla Drive Unit 291 Holmes Beach
HB Chief Bill Tokajer does a fantastic job of looking out for the community and he stands behind the people serving in his department. I’m proud to call him “Chief.” — Bonner
King Engineering and Misty Servia have represent developers interests in Manatee County often alleging facts with an exaggerated degree of truth. Recently our community faced off with them in a proposed apartment complex adjacent to our single family home community in a skewed report attempting to justify a rezone from county residential to city high density.
Their “reports” and testimony require further scrutiny by Manatee County Planning Commission and Manatee County Commissioners prior to consideration.