Commissioners: Redevelopment along Manatee urban corridors needed

MANATEE -- Development is occurring in the Manatee County outskirts rather than in aging, deteriorating urban corridors.

Lack of new development along major roadways such as U.S. 41 and Cortez Road means the corridors have deteriorated, said Pat Tyjeski, senior planner for Littlejohn Engineering Associates of Orlando.

"As we allow development to go to the outskirts of the county, it is causing the decline of urban areas," Tyjeski said at a Tuesday work session of the Manatee County Commission.

To address lack of redevelopment along these corridors, the county is updating the Land Development Code, which implements the Comprehensive Plan for urban corridors since the cur

rent code is more surburb-oriented.

The update will focus on five urban corridors: Manatee Avenue, Cortez Road, 53rd Avenue/State Road 70, Tamiami Trail and 15th Street East.

"We think this is a very high priority because it ties in with Southwest (Tax Increment Financing District) and what we are trying to do there," said John Barnott, Building and Development Services Department director.

Barnott said the county is considering reducing development fees for construction in certain areas.

Studies and recommendations about redeveloping these areas are not new but have not been entirely implemented in the past, Barnott said.

"We are bringing all this forward," he said. "We are attacking this thing from every angle we can come up with."

As part of the urban corridor code update, there will be meetings with county stakeholders, public workshops, assessment of limitations in the current code and revisions of the Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code.

Three case studies will be completed looking at hypothetical development scenarios for three sites: one near DeSoto Square mall, a vacant site on U.S. 41 and the Autoway Collision Center on 14th Street West.

The assessment report will be presented in August. Drafts of the code rewrite will be completed around April 2016.

County Commissioner John Chappie said previous studies "have just been collecting dust on the shelf."

"We can't continue doing the same thing, which is just doing the study and then putting it out there," Chappie said. "We need to make the changes to incentivize so we have infill. If we don't, we are going to continue doing what we've been doing and encouraging this urban sprawl. It is starting to deteriorate our urban core area. It needs to changes. It is in Charles (Smith's) district. It is in my district. It's in all of our districts."

Smith, who represents unincorporated areas near Palmetto, said millions of dollars invested in the community never actually reached the community.

"I like this here because it is a plan," Smith said. "These are not new problems. They've just gotten worse."

Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said Bradenton has been "let go."

"We've not kept it up," she said. "We've not done any updating. It's tired. We need Bradenton as a whole because it helps diversify. It helps quality of life. ...

"We really owe the people of Manatee County to do something now on this area that you are talking about. We need to carry it and go north. If we don't, we are crazy because it is going to make the whole county be so much better. If we can redo these areas, we will have a much better quality of life for everybody involved. Now is the time."

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter @Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published April 15, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Commissioners: Redevelopment along Manatee urban corridors needed ."