- March 24, 2025
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District 3 is on the opposite side of Manatee County, yet one East County parcel has drawn attention from back-to-back District 3 commissioners — the 161 acres near the Lena Road landfill.
Former District 3 commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge slammed the county’s purchase during his 2020 campaign and told the Observer again in July 2023 that the county had overpaid for it. He doubted the county could even get its purchase price of $32.5 million back if the land was put back on the market.
Now, Tal Siddique, the new District 3 commissioner, has brought attention back to property. During the Jan. 28 commission meeting, Siddique's discussion of the topic led commissioners to unanimously vote to keep the land for future use.
The former dairy farm was purchased by Manatee County in 2020 from Musgrave Real Estate Holdings with the intent to build a county complex that included a transfer station for the landfill.
By 2022, the property was rezoned from Suburban Agriculture to Planned Development/Mixed Use and placed on the county’s list of surplus properties.
In January 2024, the county published an Intent to Negotiate. That March, the county reviewed four proposals, and negotiations with D.R. Horton began thereafter.
The developer proposed a purchase price of $35 million that would result in a mixed-use project with over 600 residential units. The county would have retained 11 acres for a warehouse.
The county’s original plans for the land included a property and evidence warehouse for the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, plus a fleet maintenance facility for the MCSO, field operation facilities for the Utilities and Public Works departments, a district office, a transfer station and an optional EMS station.
Siddique's reasons to keep the property coincide with the staff's reasons to buy the property in 2020. The population of Manatee County has shifted east, and the property can extend the lifespan of the Lena Road Landfill.
“I believe by 2030, we were supposed to have the population we have now,” Siddique said. “For me, we have to serve the county where they (the people) are now, and they’re east and north.”
Deciding to keep the property was a first step. However, Siddique has the same concerns as his predecessor about building on the property. Costs to build anything, let alone a county complex, have significantly increased since the property was first purchased.
Van Ostenbridge estimated build-out costs at $100 million in 2020 and said the number probably increased by another $50 million since.
Siddique wants to see a facilities plan from county staff members. He suspects any plan will have to take a phased approach.
“Unfortunately, we’ve delayed this for four years,” he said. “We’ve got to start somewhere though.”
Siddique’s top priorities are emergency services and the landfill. He said the hurricanes “significantly impacted” the lifespan of the Lena Road Landfill.
The landfill is currently measuring its capacity and will have a lifespan update by March. As of August 2023, the landfill was estimated to have another 15 years left.
Utilities Director Patrick Shea said 70,000 cubic yards of debris were deposited into the landfill from August to November. One cubic yard is about the size of a dishwasher.
In January, the county reported collecting more than 2.6 million cubic yards of debris, which was enough to fill Raymond James Stadium more than twice, but most of that debris was hauled to a site in DeSoto County.
Plans for a Sheriff's Office substation were moved from Lena Road to Premier Sports Campus North, but Siddique would like to see some type of emergency services on the site, whether that be the substation or an EMS station.
He called emergency response times in the area “terrible.” Siddique did a ride along with a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputy and said servicing east and north counties from the current substation on Rangeland Parkway is a “miserable drive.”
Commissioner George Kruse agrees that county services need to shift east, but since the county isn’t losing money on the land, he’s not in a hurry to start building.
When the property was first purchased, Kruse thought it was overpriced, but he was mainly opposed to how the deal was done.
He said the purchase was pushed through, without proper due diligence, before a new board was seated, which included himself, Van Ostenbridge and former commissioner James Satcher.
Days after the new commissioners were sworn into office in 2020, Van Ostenbridge called for then-county administrator Cheri Coryea’s resignation. He cited the land purchase as an example of her mismanagement.
In February 2021, Coryea signed a separation agreement with the county. Since then, the facilities that were aimed for Lena Road have been relocated.
Utilities moved into a new 20,806-square-foot building off Cortez Road in March 2024, and a new 27,000-square-foot fleet maintenance facility for the Sheriff’s Office is anticipated to open by the end of the year off Buckeye Road in Palmetto.
Another 45,000-square-foot building is set to open in August off 9th Street West that will house a property and evidence warehouse, the Crime Scene Unit, Fingerprint Unit and a chemistry lab for the Sheriff's Office.
The current Sheriff's Office substation is in an interim space on the corner of Rangeland Parkway and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard which will serve until a 5,000-square-foot station is built at Premier Sports Campus North.
While there may not be an immediate need for facilities, commissioners were unanimous in their vote that there is no need for residential in the area.
According to Kruse, the board was open to commercial development on the land, but it became clear through the ITN that only residential developers were interested.
“We don’t want to put more residential over there,” he said. "And we certainly don't want to facilitate putting more residential there by selling county-owned property to single-family homebuilders."
Staff members have also devised a plan to extend the life of the 316-acre landfill without the need for a transfer station.
In 2020, Coryea said the land purchase could extend the landfill’s lifespan by six years.
In 2023, Deputy Director Evan Pilachowski said it was possible to extend the lifespan up to 21 years by removing fill dirt from areas that were previously closed and changing the slopes to utilize the remaining air space.
“The value (in the land) isn’t there, so we’re better off keeping it,” Kruse said. “At some point, we’re going to need it because there’s no more land. Where are you going to find 100 plus acres anywhere on this side of the Future Development Area Boundary? You’re not.”
