Manatee County planning commissioner resigns

River Place's Al Horrigan resigned Thursday from the Manatee County Planning Commission.

In a letter to Commissioner Priscilla Whisenant Trace, Horrigan described Manatee County's growth policy as "Build at unsustainable levels until the system fails."

The letter also stated, "Some will say I am disgruntled. If their definition of disgruntled is 'displeased, dissatisfied and disappointed,' they would be correct, I am."

Perhaps the final straw for Horrigan was when the Commission approved by a 5-2 vote a 600-home development just west of Evers Reservoir on May 3. The Planning Commission had previously approved the project 5-1 in April and sent it along to the Commission.

After the project was approved, Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, the lone dissenting vote, said the county blew it by not extending Natalie Way to help relieve traffic congestion expected to come out of the new development on to Honore Avenue. A Natalie Way extension would have allowed new development traffic to take Natalie Way to State Road 70.

Horrigan agreed.

"I argued the county should not approve the Comp Plan Amendment unless we got a right of way for Natalie Way," Horrigan said in the letter. "I was not opposed to the project per se, but we needed the right of way, and during a Comp Plan Amendment request you had the leverage to get it."

The beginning of Horrigan's letter questioned the wisdom of commissioners voting to collect less than the advised 100% of funds generated by Impact Fees.

"A majority of the Board made it clear in statements from the dais how they firmly intended to vote in favor of capping the fees at 90%. In doing so, the Board made it clear that public input was a required exercise and nuisance they had to endure. In essence, the Board made it known that the citizens of Manatee County could speak, but would be wasting their time and breath," he said in the letter.

"I am not anti-development," Horrigan said in the letter. "My career was in real estate, homebuilding and development. I have tried to be a voice of restraint and lobbied for good planning principals. Being complicit in a process where the wheels come off the bus is not what I am willing to allow my public service legacy to be."

The Planning Commission has seven voting members who serve four-year terms.