Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of the citizens of Manatee County. Your leadership is much needed and very appreciated. Your approach to the issues at hand seems to be exactly what is needed to address the issues rather than ignore them. Future growth is a given, but reckless planning and letting the developers go wild obviously isn't in our best interest. Managing the growth in the future, while fixing the storm water issues is imperative moving forward. Thank you for working in this direction.
In my opinion… we need a moratorium in District 1…. The County cannot even tell us how many homes are in the pipeline Iines to be built! How does any business survive if it cannot answer basic questions. If you don’t know how many houses are in the pipeline how can you know how many police, firefighters, schools, etc you will need moving foreward… what about water???? traffic is at a standstill and I’m guessing in D1 there are a minimum of 40,000 to 50,000 more houses that have been approved but don’t have permits pulled yet. Until the County staff can give us the basic info THIS insanity needs to stop!!!
The notion that "all infrastructure is funded through impact fees" is utterly misleading. The reality is that much of the development sprawling across the county is primarily funded through Community Development Districts (CDDs). It's unacceptable that these CDDs operate with virtually no oversight once they receive approval from the county attorney's office.
Homebuyers who enter communities with CDD fees are essentially paying for—or reimbursing—the developer for all infrastructure installed through bond financing sanctioned by the county. We also pay a separate annual fee for Operating and Maintenance of the District - so 2 separate fees - with the possibility of being assessed for other maintenance issues that occur in the future. Without the CDD's ability to secure these bonds / Fees, countless poorly planned residential developments would never see the light of day. Developers are only able to build these projects thanks to CDDs, which permit them to recover costs from unsuspecting homeowners who are misled into believing the CDD will ensure ongoing maintenance of the infrastructure into perpetuity as mandated by Florida Statute 190.
Even gated communities are supposed to have their infrastructure maintained in perpetuity by these CDDs, yet that is not happening, leading to soaring HOA fees. Please read Florida Statute 190 that deals with CDD's and compare this statute to what is really happening with CDD's in Manatee County. And have a detailed discussion with the attorneys who petition to have these CDD's approved. Ask them to confirm what is going on with the CDD's and explain the high salaries, the fees and the budgets of the folks managing these CDD's. The Lakewood Ranch Stewardship Districts Budget is published online. Please review it and have the CDD's maintain our infrastructure appropriately.
If the BOCC can't guarantee that our infrastructure is going to be maintained so that its safe and affordable for us to live in Manatee County then stop approving these projects. Also, the FEMA flood maps are outdated too. Tom Gerstenberger admitted this AGAIN last week, but that has been true for years....He claims this will be discussed at a meeting on Feb. 19th. Tom knows that these new projects shouldn't be approved using old, outdated flood/elevation maps, but he can't stop the BOCC.
Furthermore, the county approved that 10% of all housing built in Lakewood Ranch must be allocated for workforce housing. This requirement has been in place for years, yet none of these workforce units have been allocated. Why is that?
It's clear that the county possesses the necessary regulations for smart, safe development, but these rules are being ignored due to a revolving door of staff and commissioners. As a result, crucial issues are falling through the cracks, and this cannot continue.
I’m a county commissioner clearly referencing county infrastructure. What you’re referring to is private CDD bonds to build private infrastructure. Impact fees are not used to build private roadways and a lack of collections would have no impact on the development of those roadways so I am clearly not referring to those when making my statement. Further, CDDs and HOAs are not under the jurisdiction of the BOCC as they’re overseen by the state.
The Manatee County attorney approves the CDD petitions submitted by the developers' attorneys....it all starts at the county, George. The 7 county commissioners then approve these projects. The roads that are flooding today or have the potential to flood in the future with more development in the Lakewood Ranch area were built with CDD bond financing approved by the county - these roads are not all private. Is Lakewood Ranch Blvd a private road? The preserves or conservation areas that have gas lines running in and around them all need to be cleaned and maintained regularly so they don't contribute to wild fires, explosions, flooding and clogging adjacent stormwater drains that will potentially flood all roads making it impossible for many people to evacuate during a hurricane....all of this land and infrastructure has to be maintained by someone. the CDD? the county? the hoa? There has to be A LOT of local county oversight of these new CDD communities, & all the NEW rental projects and the new infrastructure that the county is approving for these developments. You cannot expect us to petition the state to stop this insanity when the BOCC is approving these projects... CHOKE OFF THE CDD'S - once and for all. please!
Attached see the County PIO’s response to my question “ How many new residential units has the BOCC approved from when they took office in 2020 to the date of my request?”
You and I discussed this issue during your campaign where you in essence explained that getting to an overall new residential is complicated due to the scale and phasing of the larger projects. I received the carefully crafted response from Ms. Pritchard subsequent to our conversation.
I contacted Ms. Pritchard on January 14th of this year to see, with a new Board in place, if this information might now be available. I followed up this request with another 2 emails and a phone message. To date I haven’t even had the courtesy of receipt of my request. This either reflects the County’s typical handling of public information requests they don’t want to answer…..or the number of new residential units has been developed and the number is so alarming that the last thing staff and the County Attorney’s Office wants to do is share it with the public.
Manatee County needs a moratorium precisely because you are missing this foundational building block for local government planning for services, infrastructure and that annoying “quality of life “ factor.
The residential unit dwelling unit numbers yields the new resident number which allows for the calculation of items such as additional gallons of potable water, sheriff deputies, EMTs, school teachers, lane miles of additional road construction, and waste water disposal to name just a few of the many questions that are answered with the proper data. Most importantly,, with this information the County can calculate estimated costs to service the new growth and determine to what extent current taxpayers will pay for that growth.
As I understand the social contract between the voters and the BOCC, the Board has a fiduciary responsibility to current residents to not have to subsidize future development.
On top of lacking foundational information, the County has experienced, is currently experiencing, or is very close to experiencing major public service systems failures. The County’s road system is broken. The water treatment and source availability is a challenge, and the drainage system maps are decades out of date. We are less than four months from the 2025 storm season and have yet to have seen information that was promised on the flooding experienced during last years storm season. In fact, if you look at ChatGPTs 9 reasons to consider a moratorium Manatee hits it out of the park by being representative of at least 6 of the 9 reasons to institute a moratorium.
I look forward to your response and will make myself available to discuss these issues in greater detail.
I totally agree with you Larry. If this information isn't available to the BoCC (not to mention the residents of Manatee County) then how do we trust that the BoCC is even able to make educated decisions on future growth? As you said Larry, we are "missing the foundational building block for government planning for services, infrastructure & that annoying quality of life factor".
Either they still don’t know or the number is so large that they don’t know how to handle it. My best estimate is that there’s between 50-80,000 units that have been approved. At the low side that’s an increase of 105,000 residents in 3-5 years .Applying national and state benchmarks for police, EMS, fire and teachers and class rooms amounts to serious money, without even looking at lane miles of roads, water and sewer treatment and distribution lines………
Your position is unwarranted until you address these high interest capital improvement loans, favoritism flooding, the dam releases how many homes that have been approved but not yet built as this will compound the future traffic issues and how much more our amenities have to be clogged up. Along with billion dollar budgets for parks and recreation and a fraction to growing public safety. Within 24 hrs of a hurricane confirmation we are wiped out of supplies and fuel. Get your self together and prepare a "$tate of our county"
You know this is why we rehired you to put a stop to this development. Do you want to tell us that you're still in the developers back pocket and this was all a rouge to get reelected? Is Jason Bearden doing the same? Being the voice of reason? How the hell are you going to address the traffic issues if you can't even stop approving more residential development? After reading this I know that my email tones were accurate! It's happening again right in front of our very face as we watch these BOCC meetings. You are voting against the will of the people!
How many homes have been approved but not yet built? You need to answer this question first with transparency and accuracy.
If they want more development, we need an organic community that is protected from phosphate mining, commercial farming and toxic industry. I recommended this and it was rejected by the BOCC & Mosaic in regards to the 2.5 million that Mosaic gave our county and it was never applied out east. I had suggested that they would be 10 acre lots. After all, this County was allowed to strip me of my pursuit of happiness! How about transforming your ideology being more focused on bringing new people here instead of taking care of the ones that already live here?
I have sent multiple emails to the BOCC regarding this issue and my position is the community's position! Who are you going to serve us or them? We know exactly what's going on now, they can't sell $700,000 homes anymore so now we have to create more of these unamerican HOAs for the $300,000 pricing so that those that are actually building these houses can afford them.
Too little too late! Get out of Pat's pocket Kruse! We have three commissioners that are gaining traction and you're not one of them.
How can you get this far off course being more concerned about bringing new people here rather than taking care of the ones that already live here and have been paying their taxes for decades?
While I agree that the board definitely has the tools, and the will, to make sure future growth is better managed, I think the appeal of a moratorium is that that it would prevent construction of urban sprawl that is already in the pipeline but not yet started. It has been reported that the County has no idea how many homes have been approved but not yet built - where the land hasn't been clear cut. I think these approved but not yet started single family urban sprawl homes are what moratorium supporters are hoping to put off until infrastructure catches up. Dr. McCann also seems to be considering a possible limited moratorium in proposing that developers cooperate in the goal of concurrency.
I know what the appeal is. I just fundamentally disagree and believe the unintended consequences of such an absolute, extreme measure will outweigh any perceived good that may come from it.
Your points are thoughtful. concise and appreciated. That is why Commissioners need to augment their toolkit with financial management, a business operational focus and a holistic understanding of the symbiotic relationship between government, business and the community.
Finally, a board that is willing to listen and to work on problems for the betterment of our community. While talking about infrastructure, would you please talk about traffic, especially in the West Bradenton areas. We live off of 34th & Cortez and went to dinner at Pier 22 the other night. It took almost an hour to drive 4-1/2 miles. High traffic hours used to be bad enough but traveling on Cortez is a nightmare at any time now. And ... it's not just because of the "snowbirds." A lot of the traffic problem has to do with the timing of the lights, the removal of some turn lanes, and the snowball effect of all those crazy pedestrian crossing lights that seldom get used but when they do they create a traffic disaster. Now we have 4000 new homes coming to the intersection of Cortez and 75th; that's another potential 8000 cars in the area daily. Ouch!
While in theory I would like to support a moratorium, I agree with Mr Kruse that doing such is lazy governing and would create problems for individuals or small developments. That said we need to hold the BOCC to a higher standard to get things done. I also agree that we should know what developments are in the queue. Maybe limiting and pausing all multi unit permits would be possible with home units over a certain value. Every commissioner needs to put on their thinking caps and manatee county employees need to be held to the highest standard of performance to get stuff done. Furthermore, we can’t keep doing what we have done and expect to get a different answer. Changes are needed and we don’t have the option of glacial speed. Change needs to happen now.
I will be in Tallahassee Wednesday and unfortunately unable to attend the workshop. It's a date I've had on the calendar for a while with great anticipation. Hopefully I can call in from the road when I'm driving back.
You absolutely hit the nail on the head, our county needs a controlled and responsible correction. There are many tools other counties have implemented like Florida Water Star which would be a great stepping stone to put out county on the right path. Our county has complex problems that require many specific corrections to fix. Selecting the easiest and laziest option for a "quick fix" will likely waste residents tax dollars in court fees while only kicking the can down the road.
Keep up the great work commissioner! Let's all work together to actually fix the problem and not mask it.
I very much agree with you. Thank you for stating it here. I’m very hopeful the board will not choose to be lazy and will actually put in the time to come up with thoughtful solutions for Manatee County.
Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the County. To be honest, without funds, as you note, addressing the basic structures of community like roads and water and wastewater is almost impossible. How many dwelling units are occupied only a few months of each year? It is time for Florida to implement a vacancy tax.
George
Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of the citizens of Manatee County. Your leadership is much needed and very appreciated. Your approach to the issues at hand seems to be exactly what is needed to address the issues rather than ignore them. Future growth is a given, but reckless planning and letting the developers go wild obviously isn't in our best interest. Managing the growth in the future, while fixing the storm water issues is imperative moving forward. Thank you for working in this direction.
In my opinion… we need a moratorium in District 1…. The County cannot even tell us how many homes are in the pipeline Iines to be built! How does any business survive if it cannot answer basic questions. If you don’t know how many houses are in the pipeline how can you know how many police, firefighters, schools, etc you will need moving foreward… what about water???? traffic is at a standstill and I’m guessing in D1 there are a minimum of 40,000 to 50,000 more houses that have been approved but don’t have permits pulled yet. Until the County staff can give us the basic info THIS insanity needs to stop!!!
George,
The notion that "all infrastructure is funded through impact fees" is utterly misleading. The reality is that much of the development sprawling across the county is primarily funded through Community Development Districts (CDDs). It's unacceptable that these CDDs operate with virtually no oversight once they receive approval from the county attorney's office.
Homebuyers who enter communities with CDD fees are essentially paying for—or reimbursing—the developer for all infrastructure installed through bond financing sanctioned by the county. We also pay a separate annual fee for Operating and Maintenance of the District - so 2 separate fees - with the possibility of being assessed for other maintenance issues that occur in the future. Without the CDD's ability to secure these bonds / Fees, countless poorly planned residential developments would never see the light of day. Developers are only able to build these projects thanks to CDDs, which permit them to recover costs from unsuspecting homeowners who are misled into believing the CDD will ensure ongoing maintenance of the infrastructure into perpetuity as mandated by Florida Statute 190.
Even gated communities are supposed to have their infrastructure maintained in perpetuity by these CDDs, yet that is not happening, leading to soaring HOA fees. Please read Florida Statute 190 that deals with CDD's and compare this statute to what is really happening with CDD's in Manatee County. And have a detailed discussion with the attorneys who petition to have these CDD's approved. Ask them to confirm what is going on with the CDD's and explain the high salaries, the fees and the budgets of the folks managing these CDD's. The Lakewood Ranch Stewardship Districts Budget is published online. Please review it and have the CDD's maintain our infrastructure appropriately.
If the BOCC can't guarantee that our infrastructure is going to be maintained so that its safe and affordable for us to live in Manatee County then stop approving these projects. Also, the FEMA flood maps are outdated too. Tom Gerstenberger admitted this AGAIN last week, but that has been true for years....He claims this will be discussed at a meeting on Feb. 19th. Tom knows that these new projects shouldn't be approved using old, outdated flood/elevation maps, but he can't stop the BOCC.
Furthermore, the county approved that 10% of all housing built in Lakewood Ranch must be allocated for workforce housing. This requirement has been in place for years, yet none of these workforce units have been allocated. Why is that?
It's clear that the county possesses the necessary regulations for smart, safe development, but these rules are being ignored due to a revolving door of staff and commissioners. As a result, crucial issues are falling through the cracks, and this cannot continue.
I’m a county commissioner clearly referencing county infrastructure. What you’re referring to is private CDD bonds to build private infrastructure. Impact fees are not used to build private roadways and a lack of collections would have no impact on the development of those roadways so I am clearly not referring to those when making my statement. Further, CDDs and HOAs are not under the jurisdiction of the BOCC as they’re overseen by the state.
The Manatee County attorney approves the CDD petitions submitted by the developers' attorneys....it all starts at the county, George. The 7 county commissioners then approve these projects. The roads that are flooding today or have the potential to flood in the future with more development in the Lakewood Ranch area were built with CDD bond financing approved by the county - these roads are not all private. Is Lakewood Ranch Blvd a private road? The preserves or conservation areas that have gas lines running in and around them all need to be cleaned and maintained regularly so they don't contribute to wild fires, explosions, flooding and clogging adjacent stormwater drains that will potentially flood all roads making it impossible for many people to evacuate during a hurricane....all of this land and infrastructure has to be maintained by someone. the CDD? the county? the hoa? There has to be A LOT of local county oversight of these new CDD communities, & all the NEW rental projects and the new infrastructure that the county is approving for these developments. You cannot expect us to petition the state to stop this insanity when the BOCC is approving these projects... CHOKE OFF THE CDD'S - once and for all. please!
George,
Attached see the County PIO’s response to my question “ How many new residential units has the BOCC approved from when they took office in 2020 to the date of my request?”
You and I discussed this issue during your campaign where you in essence explained that getting to an overall new residential is complicated due to the scale and phasing of the larger projects. I received the carefully crafted response from Ms. Pritchard subsequent to our conversation.
I contacted Ms. Pritchard on January 14th of this year to see, with a new Board in place, if this information might now be available. I followed up this request with another 2 emails and a phone message. To date I haven’t even had the courtesy of receipt of my request. This either reflects the County’s typical handling of public information requests they don’t want to answer…..or the number of new residential units has been developed and the number is so alarming that the last thing staff and the County Attorney’s Office wants to do is share it with the public.
Manatee County needs a moratorium precisely because you are missing this foundational building block for local government planning for services, infrastructure and that annoying “quality of life “ factor.
The residential unit dwelling unit numbers yields the new resident number which allows for the calculation of items such as additional gallons of potable water, sheriff deputies, EMTs, school teachers, lane miles of additional road construction, and waste water disposal to name just a few of the many questions that are answered with the proper data. Most importantly,, with this information the County can calculate estimated costs to service the new growth and determine to what extent current taxpayers will pay for that growth.
As I understand the social contract between the voters and the BOCC, the Board has a fiduciary responsibility to current residents to not have to subsidize future development.
On top of lacking foundational information, the County has experienced, is currently experiencing, or is very close to experiencing major public service systems failures. The County’s road system is broken. The water treatment and source availability is a challenge, and the drainage system maps are decades out of date. We are less than four months from the 2025 storm season and have yet to have seen information that was promised on the flooding experienced during last years storm season. In fact, if you look at ChatGPTs 9 reasons to consider a moratorium Manatee hits it out of the park by being representative of at least 6 of the 9 reasons to institute a moratorium.
I look forward to your response and will make myself available to discuss these issues in greater detail.
Larry Arnold
From: Lacy Pritchard <lacy.pritchard@mymanatee.org>
Date: July 23, 2024 at 2:55:10 PM EDT
To: larnoldzo6@gmail.com
Subject: No records exist responsive to your request
Reply-To: Lacy Pritchard <r+2144711@comcate.com>
RE: Manatee County, FL case number 38581
No records exist responsive to your request. If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Reply to this email or use this link to add notes to the case:
https://clients.comcate.com/myfeedbackView.php?view=2144711&id=256
Lacy Pritchard
Records & Information Management Manager
I totally agree with you Larry. If this information isn't available to the BoCC (not to mention the residents of Manatee County) then how do we trust that the BoCC is even able to make educated decisions on future growth? As you said Larry, we are "missing the foundational building block for government planning for services, infrastructure & that annoying quality of life factor".
Either they still don’t know or the number is so large that they don’t know how to handle it. My best estimate is that there’s between 50-80,000 units that have been approved. At the low side that’s an increase of 105,000 residents in 3-5 years .Applying national and state benchmarks for police, EMS, fire and teachers and class rooms amounts to serious money, without even looking at lane miles of roads, water and sewer treatment and distribution lines………
Your position is unwarranted until you address these high interest capital improvement loans, favoritism flooding, the dam releases how many homes that have been approved but not yet built as this will compound the future traffic issues and how much more our amenities have to be clogged up. Along with billion dollar budgets for parks and recreation and a fraction to growing public safety. Within 24 hrs of a hurricane confirmation we are wiped out of supplies and fuel. Get your self together and prepare a "$tate of our county"
We the taxpayers deserve better governing.
You have visited his Mansion.
You know this is why we rehired you to put a stop to this development. Do you want to tell us that you're still in the developers back pocket and this was all a rouge to get reelected? Is Jason Bearden doing the same? Being the voice of reason? How the hell are you going to address the traffic issues if you can't even stop approving more residential development? After reading this I know that my email tones were accurate! It's happening again right in front of our very face as we watch these BOCC meetings. You are voting against the will of the people!
How many homes have been approved but not yet built? You need to answer this question first with transparency and accuracy.
If they want more development, we need an organic community that is protected from phosphate mining, commercial farming and toxic industry. I recommended this and it was rejected by the BOCC & Mosaic in regards to the 2.5 million that Mosaic gave our county and it was never applied out east. I had suggested that they would be 10 acre lots. After all, this County was allowed to strip me of my pursuit of happiness! How about transforming your ideology being more focused on bringing new people here instead of taking care of the ones that already live here?
I have sent multiple emails to the BOCC regarding this issue and my position is the community's position! Who are you going to serve us or them? We know exactly what's going on now, they can't sell $700,000 homes anymore so now we have to create more of these unamerican HOAs for the $300,000 pricing so that those that are actually building these houses can afford them.
Too little too late! Get out of Pat's pocket Kruse! We have three commissioners that are gaining traction and you're not one of them.
How can you get this far off course being more concerned about bringing new people here rather than taking care of the ones that already live here and have been paying their taxes for decades?
While I agree that the board definitely has the tools, and the will, to make sure future growth is better managed, I think the appeal of a moratorium is that that it would prevent construction of urban sprawl that is already in the pipeline but not yet started. It has been reported that the County has no idea how many homes have been approved but not yet built - where the land hasn't been clear cut. I think these approved but not yet started single family urban sprawl homes are what moratorium supporters are hoping to put off until infrastructure catches up. Dr. McCann also seems to be considering a possible limited moratorium in proposing that developers cooperate in the goal of concurrency.
I know what the appeal is. I just fundamentally disagree and believe the unintended consequences of such an absolute, extreme measure will outweigh any perceived good that may come from it.
Your points are thoughtful. concise and appreciated. That is why Commissioners need to augment their toolkit with financial management, a business operational focus and a holistic understanding of the symbiotic relationship between government, business and the community.
George! You are a wonderful Board member and a wonderful breath of fresh air for a better Manatee County Board! Keep up the great work!
Finally, a board that is willing to listen and to work on problems for the betterment of our community. While talking about infrastructure, would you please talk about traffic, especially in the West Bradenton areas. We live off of 34th & Cortez and went to dinner at Pier 22 the other night. It took almost an hour to drive 4-1/2 miles. High traffic hours used to be bad enough but traveling on Cortez is a nightmare at any time now. And ... it's not just because of the "snowbirds." A lot of the traffic problem has to do with the timing of the lights, the removal of some turn lanes, and the snowball effect of all those crazy pedestrian crossing lights that seldom get used but when they do they create a traffic disaster. Now we have 4000 new homes coming to the intersection of Cortez and 75th; that's another potential 8000 cars in the area daily. Ouch!
While in theory I would like to support a moratorium, I agree with Mr Kruse that doing such is lazy governing and would create problems for individuals or small developments. That said we need to hold the BOCC to a higher standard to get things done. I also agree that we should know what developments are in the queue. Maybe limiting and pausing all multi unit permits would be possible with home units over a certain value. Every commissioner needs to put on their thinking caps and manatee county employees need to be held to the highest standard of performance to get stuff done. Furthermore, we can’t keep doing what we have done and expect to get a different answer. Changes are needed and we don’t have the option of glacial speed. Change needs to happen now.
I will be in Tallahassee Wednesday and unfortunately unable to attend the workshop. It's a date I've had on the calendar for a while with great anticipation. Hopefully I can call in from the road when I'm driving back.
You absolutely hit the nail on the head, our county needs a controlled and responsible correction. There are many tools other counties have implemented like Florida Water Star which would be a great stepping stone to put out county on the right path. Our county has complex problems that require many specific corrections to fix. Selecting the easiest and laziest option for a "quick fix" will likely waste residents tax dollars in court fees while only kicking the can down the road.
Keep up the great work commissioner! Let's all work together to actually fix the problem and not mask it.
I very much agree with you. Thank you for stating it here. I’m very hopeful the board will not choose to be lazy and will actually put in the time to come up with thoughtful solutions for Manatee County.
Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the County. To be honest, without funds, as you note, addressing the basic structures of community like roads and water and wastewater is almost impossible. How many dwelling units are occupied only a few months of each year? It is time for Florida to implement a vacancy tax.