Aqua by the Bay threatens to destroy coastal treasure
The last natural coastline on Sarasota Bay is under siege again. Long Bar Pointe is home to the bay’s healthiest mangrove and seagrass ecosystem, its finest fishing grounds and an astounding bird sanctuary.
Carlos Beruff’s new development, Aqua by the Bay, threatens to devastate this irreplaceable treasure. The Manatee County Commission meets next Thursday, May 4, to decide its fate.
In 2013, Beruff wanted to dredge a channel and build a marina at Long Bar Pointe, but Manatee County said no. He sued in vain for two years. Now, under multiple local, state and federal permits, he wants to:
▪ Dredge a lagoon 2½ miles long up to 8 feet deep and 150 feet wide behind the mangroves.
▪ Construct a seawall behind the lagoon and 2,900 homes above the seawall.
▪ Build high-rise towers up to 13 stories and 145 feet tall – four times the legal limit.
The lagoon, the seawall and the high-rise development would:
▪ Threaten more than 100 acres of mangroves and their habitat.
▪ Violate Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code policies.
▪ Destroy the character of this unique Old Florida shoreline.
Beruff’s paid engineers claim without a shred of evidence that the lagoon and seawall will preserve the mangroves below by keeping upland sediments from reaching them and “degrading them over time.”
Credible coastal ecologists say the truth is just the opposite: Building barriers behind mangroves condemns them to slow decline, because they need those sediments and nutrients to feed them and support their roots.
The Army Corps of Engineers turned Beruff down for a mitigation bank to preserve the mangroves, saying that with a lagoon, a seawall and a development right above, the mitigation bank could not possibly succeed.
Beruff claims the lagoon will provide a home for adult game fish; but Cortez fishermen, who know these waters better than anybody, say that would devastate the juvenile nursery for which Long Bar Pointe is known.
The entire project conflicts with the prime Comprehensive Plan goal for the coast – protect, preserve and enhance natural resources – as well as more than a dozen other policies.
The Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code prohibit new dredging and new seawalls, yet Beruff is seeking a dredge and fill permit from the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
The plan and the code also prohibit wetland impacts unless they are unavoidable or offer an overriding public benefit. Beruff has never shown that he can’t develop his land without dredging a lagoon, and there’s no public benefit to a watery ditch in a gated community dug for the private use of its residents.
Of course, the lagoon and the seawall are not there to enhance the environment. They are there to move as much land out of the 100-year flood plain as fast as possible, so Beruff can build as many homes as possible – including massive towers that would make a mockery of the county’s 35-foot height limit, and add even more traffic to its jam-packed roads.
Even one high-rise would be a slap in the face to this tranquil coast, where for 15 miles no building is taller than the tallest tree; and to a local economy that brings in millions from commercial fishing, recreational anglers and environmental tourism thanks to the unspoiled bounty and visual beauty of this shore.
Manatee County spent two years and countless treasure protecting its Comprehensive Plan. If there is any property where it should be rigorously applied, it is this one, the most environmentally sensitive of all.
What’s hard to understand is why this risky and reckless project is even up for discussion.
Stuart Smith represents Suncoast Waterkeeper and the local Sierra Club. Reach him at jedit79@gmail.com.
This story was originally published April 27, 2017 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Aqua by the Bay threatens to destroy coastal treasure."