The canal side of one Anna Maria property was laid bare by the removal of 116 feet of mangrove fringe.
Bradenton-based Mason Martin LLC removed 49 linear feet of remaining mangroves Feb. 21 at 111 Gull Drive after receiving permits from the city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a seawall.
Mangroves provide environmental benefits, including offering a unique ecosystem for marine life, decreasing land erosion and improving nearshore water quality.
The 1996 Florida Department of Environmental Protection Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act establishes regulations to protect coastal vegetation and set standards for mangrove trimming.
Most alterations require DEP permitting.
The property at 111 Gull Drive is owned by Massachusetts-based Sharp Development LLC, which purchased it last year for $1,890,000 before demolishing the existing home.
The DEP cleared the mangroves for removal in a September 2022 letter that exempted the construction of a seawall at the property from authorization.
However, Mason Martin lacked permits from the city and USACE to build a seawall when the contractor began removing mangroves on the canal in December.
After fielding complaints about the removal of mangroves Dec. 4, 2023, city staff inspected the property and found Mason Martin employees removing the vegetation without a city-issued building permit.
City staff posted a stop work order for work under the unissued permit at the property Dec. 6, 2023, but returned a week later — following additional complaints — to find work had resumed and the posted red tag missing.
The city reposted the stop work order, which postponed the removal of 49 feet of mangrove fringe that remained at the property.
During the delay, DEP staff inspected the property and found Mason Martin began work without installing erosion control devices, such as a silt fence and turbidity barrier — which were later installed.
Nevertheless, the DEP determined that the contractor’s work to remove the mangroves was within the footprint of exempted activity.
By Feb. 16, USACE had issued a permit for work at the property, which Mason Martin sent to the city the next day.
With that final piece in tow, city staff completed its review Feb. 20 and issued a building permit to construct a seawall.
The contractor resumed and completed work removing mangroves at the property by Feb. 21.
Mayor Dan Murphy told The Islander Feb. 22 that the issuance of a city permit negated the stop work order.
However, Murphy said the contractor violated the city’s stop work order last year and the municipality is considering legal options.
“We’re considering what can be done, if anything,” he said.
Mason Martin could face repercussions from the city’s local construction regulation board for willingly violating the municipal building code by ignoring a stop work order.
The LCRB can deny, suspend, or revoke the authority of a certified contractor to obtain a building permit or limit such authority to obtaining permits with specific conditions.
Mason Martin co-owner Frank Agnelli acknowledged in a Feb. 22 interview with The Islander that he may have cut through red tape by beginning work in December without permits from the city and USACE and resuming work despite the city’s red tag.
Nevertheless, Agnelli argued that there was too much unnecessary red tape holding up the project, costing his client money and pushing him into action.
He said he applied for a permit through the USACE in 2021, but saw no sign of progress until he began work in December without a permit.
“We got 50-60 emails out to them with no response,” Agnelli said. “Do you know that I got the permit faster doing it that way than I would have if I just would have waited for it?”
“So because I did what I did, I got the permit in two months. I didn’t receive one ounce of discipline,” he added. “I’m sorry, but it paid off that way. It worked. We got it done. We don’t know how long we would have been waiting if we didn’t do that.”
Agnelli said the property needs a seawall to meet elevations the home was built to in order to prevent flooding. He added that the property had lost about 15 feet of land to erosion despite the mangroves’ presence along the canal.
“We’re trying to protect these peoples’ investments,” he said.
Agnelli questioned the city’s jurisdiction over mangrove regulations or its ability to post a stop work order for mangrove removal work he claims had been cleared under an earlier site development permit.
He said he would take legal action if his business faced repercussions from the municipality for violating the red tag.
“I will fight that,” Agnelli said. “They’re not going to take my livelihood because I worked through a red tag that had no bearing, no weight, no legitimacy.”
Agnelli added that he was tired of being treated as a bad guy for doing his job.
“Everybody has the right to do what I did,” he said. “We push the envelope a little bit. But I’m still not in the wrong.”
Regardless of the results at 111 Gull Drive, the matter has sparked conversations among commissioners about mangrove regulations in Anna Maria and Holmes Beach.