Rye Road project expands

EAST COUNTY — The Manatee County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved changes to a community already slated for construction on Rye Road — changes that add 50 homes to the project and add a second entrance off Waterline Road.

Project developer Medallion Home is expanding its Rye Road Subdivision project, located on 35 acres between Rye and Waterline roads, to include an additional 23 acres.

The county approved April 4 a modified preliminary site plan, which showed a primary access of Rye Road and added a second entrance off Waterline Road. It also allowed for Medallion to increase the number of lots in the project from 102 to 150.

The revision also includes the addition of a pool and clubhouse inside the gated complex.

The approval was not without debate, however, because farm families who live on larger agriculturally zoned properties that line Waterline Road pushed commissioners to ask for more buffering to protect their property.

District 5 Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, who grew up on 14 acres of land in Virginia before seeing malls and homes pop up around her home, sympathized with the farm families.

“I miss my home as it was to this day,” Baugh said. “But, development happens. It’s a way of life.”

After hearing residents’ pleas, however, commissioners required a stipulation to increase buffering along two home sites that are adjacent — one to the west and one to the east — to the project on Waterline Road.
Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].