New Rye Road subdivision advances

(Editor's note: Due to an editing error, the following story about the Manatee County Planning Commission's approval of the Rye Estates/Coddington Subdivision off Rye Road stated that Rye Road residents Donna King and Sharon Cadet "hoped the planning commission would recommend not approving the subdivision." King explained that she and her daughter, Cadet, are not opposed to the subdivision and they were just voicing their concerns about traffic and density. Below is the corrected story.)

For Rye Road residents Donna King and Sharon Cadet, the future is coming faster than they had hoped.

Members of the Manatee County Planning Commission on May 11 unanimously recommended approval of a new subdivision just north of the 10-acre parcel off Rye Road owned by the mother and daughter.

The new neighborhood, currently called Rye Estates/Coddington Subdivision, will bring 360 homes to 120 acres between Waterline and Rye roads, if approved my Manatee County commissioners next month.

“You go because you want your voice to be heard,” Cadet said of why she attended the Planning Commission meeting May 11. “We’ve been on Rye Road for 41 years. When we moved to Rye Road, we had a dirt road and we had well water. I remember when the interstate was built.”

“I live out there to live the country life,” she said. “Let’s be realistic, the city has come to us.”

Medallion Home, doing business as Rye Estates LLC, is asking Manatee County for a rezone of 61 acres and the addition of 208 units, which are being added to two existing approvals on connecting parcels.

The entire project is slated to have three units per one acre. The change in zoning is consistent with Manatee County’s future growth guidelines and with other new developments, such as Del Tierra, along Rye Road.

Cadet and King said traffic already is bad on Rye Road and they worry adding 360 homes will make matters worse. Plus, having three units per acre adjacent to agriculturally-zoned land — one house per five acres —  feels out of place, or at least too drastic a change in their opinion.

“I wish it was more of a one house per acre than three houses per acre,” King said of the plan for Coddington. "We were an agricultural area, but that’s the future. The future came sooner than I thought.”

Her neighbor, Gary Lawson, agreed he doesn’t like traffic more than anyone else, but said he did not oppose the development, which directly abuts his land to the north. 

“It’s progress,” said Lawson. “I’ve been here all my life but I’m an advocate for landowner rights. It’s in the county’s Comprehensive Plan.”

Lawson hopes engineering done for the project can be used to improve flooding issues he has had on his own property, and Medallion’s engineer, John Cavoli, assured him conditions would improve post-development.

The project is an expansion of two previously approved. The original approval was for 102 single family detached units on a narrow 35-acre property off Rye Road. Medallion added 50 units on 23 more acres in June 2016. 

This approval potentially gains it 208 homes on another 61 acres.

“We were able to secure the added properties and it make it a better overall project,” said Pete Logan, president of Medallion home.

Medallion has not finalized specifics for the project, such as home styles, price points or even amenities. Logan said the company has no timeline for developing it.

“It’s too early in the process,” Logan said, declining further comment.