Manatee Planning Commission recommends Long Bar Pointe project, aka Aqua by the Bay
BRADENTON — Aqua by the Bay is the second—maybe the third—name of this Long Bar Pointe LLLP project by Medallion Homes builder Carlos Beruff, and three years in the making. The application barely squeezed by in a 3-2 vote that followed a recommendation by the planning commission. Commissioners Conerly and Rutledge were absent.
The vote sends a message from the planning commission to the BOCC (Board of County Commission) recommending the BOCC approve the 2,894 residential unit project.
The request proposed a rezoning of 191 acres for single family residential dwellings and 130 acres from A-1, to PDMU (Planned Development Mixed Use).
The proposed Aqua by the Bay also requests approval for a General Development Plan (GDP) that would allow a seven phase mixed-use development on the 529 acre site.
The site is west of the intersection of 75th Street West and 53rd Avenue West, between El Conquistador Parkway and Sarasota Bay, a perennial stream.
There are approximately 264 acres of wetlands, of which 13 acres will be impacted. The project is in the CHHA (Coastal High Hazard Area), CEA (Coastal Evacuation Area), and CPA (Coastal Planning Area) Overlay Districts.
There weren't any designs presented for the vertical wall and lagoon proposed to protect the shore and mangroves. One of the echoing complaints from those opposed to the project was that few things were complete, and 'too many things are missing' from the required procedures in the application.