The Not-So-Great Wall of Cortez?
The Federal Department of Transportation has programmed 2026-27 construction of a 65-foot-clearance fixed-span bridge to replace the 17-foot-clearance Cortez drawbridge. For some Cortez Mobile Home Park residents, that will mean an approximately 20-foot-tall wall staring back at them through their front windows.
The park is on the west side of the Cortez fishing village, designated a U.S. historic district in 1995. It rests at the eastern terminus of the Cortez Bridge and borders the Intracoastal Waterway to the west and Cortez Road to the north.
Michael Holbrook, a Cortez Park resident whose family has owned property in the park for 30 years, owns a home with a front porch view of Cortez Road. If the megabridge construction goes forward as planned, his property will face the highest point of the ramp that carries traffic to and from the bridge.
“I’d hate to walk out and look up and see nothing but concrete for 20 or 30 feet,” Holbrook said April 1. “It sucks rocks, man.”
“I love the village, I love being here and I agree with everyone else about how much this is going to change the atmosphere of the village,” he added.
Holbrook said he also was concerned about trash and debris that might come off the megabridge and accumulate at the base of the bridge.
The only benefit of the big bridge, he said, is that it would cut down on the number of cars that access Tide Tables restaurant through the park.
With megabridge construction, traffic access to Tide Tables would be restricted to a new road that stems from the north side of Cortez Road and loops beneath the bridge.
But restricted access might hurt restaurant sales, which would negatively impact park residents’ property values, Holbrook said.
Holbrook’s neighbor to the west, Carol Ritter, is more equivocal about the megabridge.
She said that while a high wall is questionable, she could go either way, since her view is usually dominated by parked recreational vehicles.
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad,” she said. “I won’t know until I see the thing.”
Ritter’s neighbor to the west is Bob Flesch, who purchased his property in 1995.
Flesch said that although his view will not change dramatically, since he’ll be looking under the bridge at the access road, he is opposed to the megabridge.
“It would be ridiculous for us to have that wall up here,” he said. “Originally, most of the people in town thought that we were going to just repair this bridge, but, of course, the state won’t accept that.”
“The consensus now is that a 35-foot bridge would be very sufficient,” Flesch added. “And it probably wouldn’t disrupt the community like this 65-foot monstrosity.”
Flesch’s sentiments are shared by a coalition challenging the high bridge’s construction in federal court. The group includes Bradenton Beach, former Manatee Commissioners Joe McClash and Jane von Hahmann, and Cortez residents Linda Molto and Joe Kane.
In addition to obstructed views and debris, McClash said April 8 that park residents could expect:
- Increased light pollution;
- Greater difficulty accessing the bridge on foot;
- Increased storm surge and wave action due to wind deflected by the high walls.
Wall problems aside, park residents also will have to deal with megabridge construction headaches and increased noise from traffic after the high bridge is completed, McClash said.