Ahead of the workshop, a big developer blames the county.
Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: Feb. 21, 2025
Host: How does local government respond to climate change if that notion does not even exist in the official vocabulary here? During last year’s historic storm season, hundreds of homes were flooded inland in Manatee County, including in relatively recent planned developments. On Wednesday, the all-Republican Manatee County Commission huddled in a workshop to learn about the weak spots of its stormwater management systems and what it would take to bring them up to snuff. The background music that’s begun to play ahead of the meeting is finger-pointing against the county—by the biggest developer in the area. We have more on that.
Tom Gerstenberger
Johannes Werner: Tom Gerstenberger, Manatee County’s Stormwater Engineering Division Director, took the better part of two hours with his presentation about the county’s stormwater management systems and their performance during the historic floods last year. He laid it out on 76 PowerPoint slides with even more maps, graphics and charts. Bottom line: In response to a question from a commissioner, the stormwater chief said that planning staffers—as they were busy approving one development after the next—have not had an opportunity to look at the cumulative effect of all this on flooding and stormwater systems.
The stormwater chief produced a lengthy list of recommendations to his bosses amounting to a comprehensive overhaul that ranges from improving maintenance of existing systems, to proper planning and prioritizing new projects, to creating funding mechanisms.
In response, Commission Chair George Kruse said all of it is needed, but Manatee County could not afford to pay for all of it. So picking priorities, estimating their cost, and then finding funding mechanisms would be the proper way to go about it.
Newly elected Commissioner Tal Siddique, whose district includes west Bradenton and the flood-devastated islands, dashed out of the gate first. He seemed to respond to the stormwater chief’s recommendations with an “all of the above,” putting the challenge in a 100-year perspective. Siddique set out the need of an overhaul that may cost Manatee taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Tal Siddique
Tal Siddique: A hundred years ago, this board had a generational plan to really address stormwater in Manatee County—what is now west Manatee County but was just Manatee County back then—and I just urge this board, and really the public, to work together—and certainly our private partners as well—to put a plan in place, to really address stormwater seriously, to think generationally about the money we’re collecting—we might receive $252 million—and put it towards real stormwater management.
JW: After giving a presentation about stormwater management in his district since the early 20th century, Siddique said the challenge goes way beyond maintenance. He highlighted the piecemeal approach to flood management in the area since the last comprehensive approach in 1905 and suggested a complete overhaul.
Flooding at Centre Lake in 2024.
TS: The maps don’t go far back enough, but more than 100 years, really, these drain systems are the same as 1940 at the very least—probably earlier. I say this to say, “Look—” and this is now being developed in this corner; that SeaFlower, that’s going to get built up; eventually, this will, too. The problem is the system has never changed. Beyond 2011, we’ve never dredged Wares, and that’s really the only focus area. All along this system here, we have thousands of properties that exist that, through a mix of private and public access points—easements, canals, and creeks—public stormwater has been flowing through these systems, and we’ve done very little to maintain it. It’s now gotten to a point where this is now a capital problem for us, not just a simple maintenance problem. That’s really what I wanted to highlight today: what you’re seeing in the north and the east is the lack of something like this to route the water from all the impervious surfaces. I fully support having something similar set up out east, because at a certain point, developers just care about what’s going on in their proverbial backyard—they only care about their plots and properties—because Manatee County doesn’t have a cohesive stormwater system to really tie all those things together. That’s why you see District 5—the flooding there—because, downstream of it, you have a mix of public and private canals, which—the maintenance is unknown at best.
JW: Commissioner Carol Felts—also a newcomer to the dais—criticized the lack of scrutiny for new development regarding flooding. She suggested the creation of a separate stormwater department and criticized the abolishing of the stormwater utility fee four years ago. She advocated bringing back the fee, but she also suggested cutting expenses elsewhere to fund all this.
Carol Felts.
Carol Felts: We may have to tighten our belts up on both sides of the equation in order to accomplish something that, yes, is going to take money to do. It’s going to take county staff, it’s going to take our builders and our developers, and it’s going to take our citizens, too—not working against each other or blaming each other but each contributing our efforts to that and focusing our efforts on that. We need the money; we need the plan; we need the action now.
JW: The day before the workshop, the Florida Trident—an investigative online publication run by government-in-the-sunshine activist Mike Barfield—broke the news about Manatee County engineers investigating two problem areas that may have caused some of the severe flooding at Lakewood Ranch during Hurricane Debby. LWR Communities commissioned civil engineer Steve Suau to produce a report about the possible causes of flooding at the Summerfield and River Club subdivisions.
In his article, Barfield quoted Rex Jensen, the chief executive of the company behind the fast-sprawling development, blaming two possible contributors. One is a man-made modification to a nearby golf course; the other, sediment building up in the Braden River. Jensen shared the results of Suau’s report with Manatee County in mid-November 2024. Flooded residents have been kept in the dark about the study.
Flooding in Shadybrook Village in 2024.
The Barfield article says that, ahead of the workshop, Jensen sent a strongly worded email to the county commission blaming the county for the flooding.
While residents brought up the Suau report in public comment, neither commissioners nor staffers mentioned it during the workshop. Commission Chair George Kruse mentioned the Summerfield and River Club cases in passing but said the county needs to put attention to all neighborhoods.
Reporting for WSLR News, this has been Johannes Werner.
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