Letters voice concern about Beruff - UPDATE

Update: Beruff's plan, with some changes, was approved unanimously by the Manatee County Commission. 

This link takes you to the Petition seeking to halt the development of Aqua by the Bay. 

Op-Ed:

"At 75-95 feet, over sixty buildings will create a solid wall of structures that will make anything on Longboat Key look like a pastoral landscape by comparison. Make no mistake, this will be a city looming over Sarasota Bay, and if the commissioners think they will fix it with a stipulation or two, they are deeply mistaken." ~ Andy Mele, Suncoast Waterkeeper, Bradenton Times

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Developer Carlos Beruff's "Aqua by the Bay" development comes up Tuesday, Oct. 3, at the Manatee County Commission. The proposal would transform the last natural coastline in the area to thousands of homes and condos on 529 acres.

Below are some Letters about the project. Along with many other environmental issues, citizens see the vision of their Comp Plan being ignored in the planning of the project.

Beruff and Vogler Courtesy of Bradenton Herald

Hurricanes scream need to stop dense coastal development

SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 11:28 AM

Recent deadly hurricanes have proven the vulnerability of over developed coastal areas to destruction by wind and storm surge and illustrate the inadequate evacuation plans in place throughout Florida.

Manatee County’s Comprehensive Plan was developed with great foresight in the late 1980s to prevent disasters that can occur when development is allowed in low-lying areas and too near the coast.

In recent years, political pressures have threatened enforcement of the comp plan and land development code. Experienced and knowledgeable county staff members have been dismissed. Members of the public are actively discouraged from meeting with staff members to inquire about applications submitted to the county. And the public only sees vague general development plans that could be approved before crucial details are known.

The coastal and conservation elements of the Comprehensive Plan still are the law. The plan prohibits alteration of coastal wetlands (including mangroves); restricts dredge and fill operations in the coastal planning area; limits the construction of artificial waterways; limits development type, density and intensity within the coastal planning area; and directs population concentrations away from the coastal evacuation area.

The Manatee County Commission has the responsibility to uphold the Comprehensive Plan and deny applications that violate the comp plan and land development code by dredging a channel, destroying wetlands and increasing density in the coastal planning area.

On Tuesday, Oct. 3, the commission can stop dense coastal development and preserve the last extensive mangrove forest on Sarasota Bay by simply following the law and denying the General Development Plan for Aqua by the Bay.

Preserving this rich and diverse habitat would be a testament of respect for this high functioning environment that will support fisheries and wildlife, and the income they bring to the county, for generations to come.

SANDRA RIPBERGER

BRADENTON

Beruff deserves no special privileges 

At the May 4 hearing before the Board of County Commissioners about the Aqua by the Bay project, Carlos Beruff pleaded with the commission to not single him out, but rather to treat him like any other developer wishing to develop his land. Commissioner Betsy Benac agreed that the commission should be fair in all its decisions.

The problem with this argument is that, in Mr. Beruff’s own words, this is “a unique world-class development.” A unique development requires a unique analysis.

No other development is developing the last portion of unspoiled bay in Manatee County. No other developer is changing the plans for development and the corporate structure so fast and so often that even the commissioners have to ask numerous questions to ascertain the substance of their vote. No one else submits one design to an agency for permit approval and submits different plans to a different agency for a different permit. No other development simply submits artist’s renderings of other developments or of an “Infinity Beach” without concrete details of the exact location of the structures on the development. (What is the source of the water in the saltwater body? How big will it be? What is the source of the sand?)

By your own admission, the design of your lagoon is unique. Therefore, its environmental impact should be evaluated more thoroughly than a routine drainage swale. No one else is “removing land from the high hazard zone” by adding 13 feet of fill behind a wall that is of such unique construction that neither your planners nor the Manatee County planners can even agree what to call it. I have not even touched on the issue of building heights, which has been covered in other letters.

Yes, Mr. Beruff, what we want to do is treat you like everybody else and not give you special privilege at the expense of the other residents of Manatee County.

JUDY P DRAKE

BRADENTON

At one recent hearing, activists opposing Aqua by the Bay brought in a model of the plan because, they said, the proposal submitted by the developer lacked specific details necessary for the plan to even be properly visualized:

More Letters to the Editor about Beruff's "Aqua by the Bay"