Bradenton Beach is now the fifth complainant to take up a legal challenge to the planned 65-foot-clearance Cortez Bridge.
City commissioners unanimously voted March 18 to join Joe McClash and three others in a federal fight against the Florida Department of Transportation construction plans to replace the Cortez drawbridge.
The DOT’s decision to replace the 17-foot-clearance drawbridge, constructed in the 1950s to connect Cortez and the mainland to Anna Maria Island in Bradenton Beach, violated the Federal Administrative Procedures Act, McClash said.
As pro se plaintiffs — meaning they are not represented by an attorney — McClash and his fellow plaintiffs filed the federal complaint “a little over a year” ago, he said.
Their goal is not to “stop any type of bridge” because the Cortez Bridge needs to be replaced. The objection is to the height of the DOT’s planned bridge. A 35-foot-clearance bridge would sufficiently do the job, McClash said.
McClash is looking for compromise.
The complainants argue the DOT did not follow federal rules and procedures to approve a bridge of any height.
If the pending legal action and possible mediation are not successful, the bridge, which is in the design phase, would take about five years to build and be completed in 2026.
Initial efforts to challenge the issue at the state level were denied because the issue is a federal matter — the DOT assumed the federal government’s responsibilities, McClash said.
Dialogue between McClash’s group and the DOT has not been adversarial “for the most part.” And it was the DOT that encouraged filing the complaint in the federal court system “to preserve our right to challenge this bridge,” McClash said.
The legal action is not a typical lawsuit, he added.
“There’s not a whole lot of discovery,” and it’s now up to the DOT to produce administrative records detailing measures taken to comply with federal rules to approve the bridge, McClash said.
“Once we receive that, we’ll be able to best determine what specific rules they did violate in our opinion and we have reason to believe there were a few,” he continued.
As a county commissioner in 1990, McClash favored a 65-foot-clearance fixed-span bridge to replace the Cortez Bridge.
But, in the years since his time in county office, McClash said he had learned the devastating impacts of such a bridge.
McClash said a steeper grade would impact walkers and runners, and the noise barrier walls would negatively impact the community character in Bradenton Beach and Cortez.
Of major concern to the plaintiffs is “Cortez is impacted tremendously,” McClash said.
The touchdown of the proposed bridge is about 200 yards inland of the existing bridge terminus. So retaining walls to hold back sediment and drainage would be required. And those retaining walls would divide the village.
To improve the delay of vehicles by 44.7 seconds is not worth what would amount to the destruction of the historic fishing village and Cortez’s businesses, McClash said.
The DOT selected the megabridge option over objections from people in Cortez village, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Voicing her support for becoming a fifth plaintiff, Bradenton Beach Commissioner Marilyn Maro said she doesn’t want to see “our last original fishing village in the United States” be destroyed.
Division of labor
When it comes to the amount of work required by the challenge, McClash said, “I’m willing to do a lot of the heavy lifting.”
He also said he is considering a GoFundMe page to crowdsource money for the challenge and lessen plaintiffs’ financial burden.
An initial mediation hearing will cost $350 an hour, split between plaintiffs and the DOT. A date had not been set for the hearing.
City attorney Ricinda Perry recommended the commission approve a motion to direct her to coordinate with outside counsel to represent the city’s interest in the suit.
Commissioner Jan Vosburgh made that motion and Maro seconded it.
Nobody wants the planned Cortez DOT bridge nor any other new bridge.
The current bridge at Cortez has many, many years of life in it! When last repaired, sacrificial zinc anodes were added to protect the new steel rebar in the new support posts. The concrete will be fine as long as the anodes are replaced on schedule as per regular maintenance.
What needs to be done is close the ICWW Intracoastal Waterway on the inside of Anna Maria Island. It serves only to allow passage of a few sailboats and other RVs…it is not used for Commerce of Defence as originally envisioned. Those sailboats and RVs are an unnecessary burden on taxpayers and they waste our time. Instead, they they should pass on the Gulf side of the island – they are built for it!
Commerce or Defence
Such inconsiderate, ignorant schills, our DOT employees. And now Bradenton Beach too wants to help rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic.
Sorry, but SEA LEVEL IS RISING!
We know sea level rose 6″ in the last 20 years at St Pete Pier. In the next decade it will likely rise another foot, and evacuation of Anna Maria Island will be a real issue. By 2150-70 the new Cortez bridge will be a boat launch ramp.
See this:
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/waterlevels.html?id=8726520&units=standard&bdate=20010301&edate=20210301&timezone=GMT&datum=MLLW&interval=m&action=
Build a mega-bridge from Bayshore to LBK.
The last thing AMI needs is a large bridge to dump more cars on the Island.
Gulf Drive cannot handle the existing traffic to and from LBK.
If they can tear up the Village Cortez to accommodate a new bridge they can tear up LBK for the same reason.
I’m sure the residents of LBK will welcome it with open arms.