After Manatee County commissioners voted to reduce local wetland buffer zones, a prominent developer wants to build parts of a large housing complex closer to the wetlands bordering Sarasota Bay.
Plans for Aqua by the Bay, a project by developer Carlos Beruff’s Medallion Home, include over 2,300 multifamily units and over 500 single-family homes along El Conquistador Parkway in Bradenton.
But before the county’s wetland changes have been finalized, Beruff is asking state officials to approve an exception that would allow parts of his 529-acre development to include minimal or no wetland buffers — a move that could harm the bay’s ecosystem, local experts say.
The county’s longstanding rules require a minimum buffer of 50 feet between development and “environmentally sensitive wetlands.” But with those rules slated for removal, Beruff is seeking to reduce buffers dramatically in the next phase of Aqua’s construction.
Instead, portions of the development would be bordered only by a gabion wall — a kind of barrier made of cages filled with rocks. Other parts would have 25-foot buffers.