Issues to Watch 2014: How we will grow

EAST COUNTY — Manatee County leaders are setting a new vision for growth.

In October, the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners endorsed a blend of two options from the county’s “How Will We Grow” plan, which provides alternative strategies for Manatee County’s future growth.

In 2014, individual neighborhoods can communicate their visions for their specific community to the county.

Ed Hunzeker, county administrator, said the county is working on unveiling a neighborhood grant program, in which county staff would meet with homeowners from a specific community and listen to their wishes.

The county would share the cost of development with the neighborhood.

Neighborhood grants would go toward improvements related specifically to recommendations made from the Urban Land Institute, in a report it issued in March that evaluated How Will We Grow.

“If a neighborhood wants sidewalks and streetlights, we put in sidewalks and streetlights,” Hunzeker said.

“We set a plan to do that and share the costs with homeowners. These would be more aesthetic changes.”

The county had a similar program in place during the 1990s, but on a smaller scale than what Hunzeker envisions now.

In the next few months, Hunzeker will present a funding plan related to How Will We Grow and the neighborhood grant program. He said he would not be opposed to recommending commissioners assume debt to fund the plans.

“This is your neighborhood,” Hunzeker said. “What do you want to do with it?”

The old way
Hunzeker and Osborne believe the county needs to rethink development.

“Density makes things happen,” Hunzeker said.

Zoning and Planning official John Osborne, whom Hunzeker selected to lead How Will We Grow, says density creates efficiency.

“We have to do a better job of efficiently managing our existing infrastructure instead of building and widening new roads,” Osborne said. “The county is like any other business. With infrastructure, you need a certain amount of customers per linear square foot, otherwise you are operating in the red.”

For the last decade, Manatee County officials have shied away from high-density projects in unincorporated areas, enacting a “low rise — low density” development philosophy.

But commissioners now realize staying that course does not provide the best answer to a central question of How Will We Grow. That is: How can the county best ensure growth pays for the infrastructure improvements — water, sewer and other services — that come along with it?

To allow the growth proposed in How Will We Grow, county staff aims to revise its codes.

The first phase of revisions to the Manatee County LDC — a document written in 1989 — were revealed in November.

These changes, posted to the county website for public comment through the end of January, are largely superficial.

They change verbage and organization and make the LDC document easier to navigate and implement.

But, taken together with second-phase changes — revisions to be presented later this year to incorporate How Will We Grow — the new code will set a path to a modern-day Manatee County.

“We need to take the handcuffs off our codes,” Osborne said. “The codes need to allow for mixed uses. All of this is not to say low density never has a place in Manatee County. Part of the conversation is to determine where the right places are.”

Choices by many
The community, in conjunction with commissioners, will help determine how its county looks.

Hunzeker says, in the first quarter of this year, he will come to commissioners with a list of potential ideas related to How Will We Grow.

Vanessa Baugh, District 5 commissioner, believes opening the conversation to the public allows for opportunity,

“It’s wonderful to give neighborhoods a choice,” Baugh said. “A lot of people have come to me and said they want their medians to look like Lakewood Ranch. I tell them, ‘People pay for that beauty’ (with community development district assessments). Maybe certain neighborhoods want to have a CDD. We can help facilitate that.”

BREAKDOWN
Overview: Manatee County Commissioners have endorsed a plan for growth. Now, through a funding plan and changes to its codes, Manatee County must implement the plans with input from community.

Players: John Osborne, Ed Hunzeker and Vanessa Baugh

Timeline: October 2013 — Manatee County commissioners endorsed a blend of options two and three from the “How Will We Grow” plan; Jan. 31, 2014 — deadline for public comment to first phase changes of the Manatee County Land Development Code; first quarter 2014 — Ed Hunzeker, Manatee County administrator, will come to commissioners with a list of potential ideas related to “How Will We Grow.”

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected]