The Southwest Florida Water Management District approved May 23 a final order allowing the issuance of a developer’s permit and cementing the developer’s claim to the Hunter Point canal.
Swiftmud announced the decision during a May 23 governing board meeting in Tampa.
Marshall Gobuty, president of Cortez Road Investments and Finance, which is the developer of Hunters Point Resort & Marina at 12531 Gulf Breeze Terrace in Cortez, spoke May 26 with The Islander.
“This was a victory for the environment and the manatees when the Southwest Florida Water Management District approved the permit for docks at the Hunters Point project,” he said.
Hunters Point is a development of 86 zero-energy homes that self-generate and store electrical power on the north side of Cortez Road in west Manatee County.
In 2021, MHC Cortez Village LLC, which owns the neighboring Cortez Village Marina, petitioned the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings asking for the revocation of a Swiftmud permit allowing Cortez Road Investments to construct 49 dock slips along a canal belonging to Hunters Point.
The petition alleged the docks would increase boat traffic, impair canal traffic by narrowing navigable portions of the canal, negatively affect marina customers’ safety, limit the size of the vessels that can use the canal and negatively impact the profit-ability and ongoing operations at the Cortez Village Marina, 12160 Cortez Road.
Gobuty’s legal team maintained the docks as proposed were in compliance with all local, state and federal rules and regulations and MHC’s petition lacked merit.
Administrative Judge J. Bruce Culpepper in March recommended Swiftmud issue a permit for the Hunters Point docks, finding that MHC failed to prove the docks would be contrary to the public interest or negatively impact navigation.
Swiftmud moved to issue the permit.
Gobuty said Hunters Point includes safety protections to minimize impacts to manatees from inexperienced boaters from the MHC Cortez Marina, which he noted is utilizing the Hunters Point canal without authorization.
“Thanks to the wisdom of the administrative law judge and Swiftmud, MHC’s Marina’s inexperienced boaters, who trespass in the Hunters Point canal, will have to follow Hunters Point canal safety plans,” Gobuty said. “We are also happy that the environmental leaders who have been following this case’s progress can be confident that the manatees and the environment will be given the most care possible by having the trespassing marina customers slow down and pay attention to our friends in the canal.”
MHC Cortez did not respond to a May 26 request for comment from The Islander.