After Sarasota County staff was preparing to deny a permit to remove protected mangroves from publicly owned shoreline along Lemon Bay in December 2023, Commissioner Ron Cutsinger pushed to have the county abandon that same land next to property he owned and a nearby parcel he later purchased, newly obtained public records show.
The public land — conveyed to the county in 1998 as part of a preservation gift — later disappeared from the Property Appraiser’s public map after a meeting prompted by Cutsinger.
The land was zoned open use conservation by a 1975 county ordinance and sits next to the Lemon Bay Aquatic Preserve. Aquatic preserves are state-owned sovereign submerged lands in areas which have exceptional biological, aesthetic, and scientific value. Mangroves act as natural protection for shorelines and support biodiversity by serving as critical nurseries for fish and wildlife…