Manatee County commissioner pushes for building moratorium

Some commissioners, and at least one developer, are pushing back against the idea.


Commissioner Bob McCann is looking into the possibility of a building moratorium in District 5.
Commissioner Bob McCann is looking into the possibility of a building moratorium in District 5.
Photo by Lesley Dwyer
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Manatee County Commissioner Bob McCann made it clear during his campaign last year for a District 5 seat on the commission that he would be representing those who wanted to slow development. District 5 covers Lakewood Ranch in east Manatee and parts of south-central Manatee County. 

“If there’s a blade of grass, (developers) want to build on it,” McCann said. “I got 42,000 votes that said, ‘Hey, stop the building.’” 

Since being elected in November, McCann has cast votes against final plats, rezoning requests, commercial proposals and an affordable housing land use restriction agreement because the project will add cars to Lorraine Road. He also made a successful motion to revert the prior commission's decision to change wetland buffer requirements

Now, McCann would like to see a residential building moratorium on District 5 for one year while he said steps could be taken to prevent any future flooding and to catch up on infrastructure.

While he hasn’t made a motion yet, McCann started the conversation during the Manatee County Commission’s first meeting of the new year Jan. 7.  (McCann is a Republican, as are the six other county commissioners; three of the seven are new to office, being elected last November.)

“My district wants a moratorium on building. Edgewater voted for a one-year moratorium on building," McCann said at the meeting, referring to the Volusia County city with a population of about 24,000. "It can be done.”


On the edge

Whether McCann gets any support on his idea remains to be seen.

Commissioner Mike Rahn, for one, is “100% against” it. 

“Building moratoriums have proven not to be effective,” sais Rahn, a banker specializing in residential mortgages and past president of the Home Builders Association of Sarasota-Manatee. “They hurt employment in the county within the building industry. There are other things that the county can do, with the board’s approval, to slow down growth if they want to.”

But McCann said Manatee could follow the example set by Edgewater, which passed a citywide building moratorium Jan. 6, so its staff could get a handle on the city’s stormwater issues. 

Edgewater, on Florida's east coast, has a detailed plan of what will be accomplished during the next year, including the creation of a stormwater master plan and updates to its Land Development Code and Comprehensive Plan. The moratorium includes exceptions for industrial and commercial uses in certain areas. 


Legal issues

District 1 Commissioner Carol Felts said citizens in her district, which spreads from the northeast to the southeast, and is more rural than others parts of the county, want a moratorium, too, but what might happen is a districtwide moratorium idea gets whittled down to something extremely specific, such as “until Moccasin Wallow Road is completed, we’re not going to approve any more development on it.” 

“You have to take a little militant action when the pendulum has swung so far to one side to bring it back to plum,” she said. 

Commissioner Jason Bearden said he wants more information first but is willing to consider the idea.

Commissioner George Kruse said moratoriums are too broad of a stroke. With a moratorium, the commission would have to deny everything from housing developments to homeless veterans projects. 

Rex Jensen, the top executive at Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, the developer behind Lakewood Ranch, is unabashedly against a building moratorium of any kind 

“I’m elated that the county commission is finally looking seriously at drainage concerns and that Lakewood Ranch’s Commissioner McCann shares that priority,” Jensen, the president and CEO of SMR, wrote in an email, according to yourobserver.com, sister publication of the Business Observer. “I appreciate his participation in the quest for solutions. This is the first time in 35 years that I’ve heard anything from anyone in the county willing to address the problem."

"I’m dismayed that one of the tools being considered is a moratorium," he adds, "which I view to be nothing but political, irrelevant, counterproductive, ineffective and for that matter, illegal.” 

Jensen is correct on the legality. Senate Bill 250 currently prohibits construction moratoriums in any county within 100 miles of where Hurricane Ian or Hurricane Nicole made landfall.

McCann, a retired emergency room physician who is also an attorney, said the bill contains “questionable language.” He’s looking into what was actually damaged in District 5 because of Hurricane Ian. If there was no major damage in the area, then the bill shouldn’t apply to the area. 

“We just received a big grant for disaster management,” McCann said. “We should be building and mitigating the last disaster. We should be making sure that we’re not going to flood again.” 

An East Manatee Fire Rescue worker paddles toward a flooded home on Quonset Road along the Braden River to rescue the occupant.
Courtesy image

Specifically, McCann wants to see trash and debris removed from the Braden River and retention ponds dredged. 

He said his plan wouldn’t stop commercial development or parks from being built. The moratorium would only apply to residential projects. 

Kruse hopes the commission considers alternative actions, such as setting clear criteria for building and taking away incentives in places where commissioners would like to limit density and growth. 

“Stop allowing up-zoning of properties in those areas,” he said. “Stop allowing all the extra stipulations for less setbacks and less buffers. Just keep saying ‘no.’”

Saying “no” to Kruse also means keeping the Future Development Area Boundary where it is and removing Policy 2.1.2.8 from the Comprehensive Plan, which allows the commission to approve projects beyond the FDAB. 


Fact finding

Count Felts in the McCann camp on the moratorium issue. 

“Here’s the thing,” Felts said. “I’m here to represent the citizens. I know my citizens want a building moratorium.” 

Ever since Hurricane Debby caused flooding in Lakewood Ranch and Parrish, there have been two specific requests made by some citizens at commission meetings: the findings from the Hurricane Debby independent investigation the county promised and a building moratorium. 

The findings are due to be released during a special work session scheduled for Feb. 19. 

Jensen, meanwhile, seeks a pragmatic, not political, solution to the moratorium question. 

“Rather than forcing a useless legal contest that makes lawyers rich, I offer today a partnership which should begin with a face-to-face meeting in which we share the facts, leaving the politics aside,” Jensen writes.  

“Some of these facts we have already gathered, and some facts the county should already have at its fingertips. By sharing these facts, we can quickly figure out an action plan with defined timetables where we (SMR) deal with Lakewood Ranch, and the county deals with anything off-site, which we don’t have the authority to touch. I look forward to that meeting, which can happen yesterday as far as I am concerned, if anyone is serious about actually doing something about the problem.”

McCann agreed during the Jan. 7 meeting that the first step is to sit down with the builders. However, during the land use meeting Jan. 14, he also made it clear he intends to continue his pursuit. 

“I heard the argument that if we try to do anything to stop the building, then people are going to lose their jobs and take food off the table,” McCann said. “At least they’ve got a table. Those tables, those countertops, those walls, those floors (of flood victims) ended up in the street.”

This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.

 

author

Lesley Dwyer

Lesley Dwyer is a staff writer for East County and a graduate of the University of South Florida. After earning a bachelor’s degree in professional and technical writing, she freelanced for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Lesley has lived in the Sarasota area for over 25 years.

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