Manatee County leaders have signed off on buying a 93-acre property in Parrish with plans to prevent flooding, protect rare habitat from development and create a public park.
The property sits along Golf Course Road between Fort Hamer Road to the west and Rye Road to the east. Gamble Creek, a major tributary of the Manatee River, flows through it for half a mile, as does a half-mile portion of the Frye Canal. In recent years, large housing developments have swallowed up green space in the area, closing in.
“It is in a very high-pressure area for development,” said Debra Woithe, manager of the county’s Environmental Lands Program…