In a last-ditch effort against the massive development, conservationists seek help from Army Corps of Engineers.
By Noah Bookstein
Original Air Date: September 17 2026
Host: Have you heard of “Sea Spray”? Developer Carlos Beruff describes the project – Phase 2 of the massive Aqua by the Bay development – as potentially “dominating” West Bradenton, with its 2,000-plus planned units plus condo high-rise. To get its last phase done, Beruff and his partners have to go through a federal process triggered by its impact on the shoreline—at one the last remaining natural stretches along Sarasota Bay. Noah Bookstein reports on a process that has already prompted 1,000 comments.
Noah Bookstein: Developers have a way with names. Lakewood Ranch went up where the woods and the ranch used to be. And on Sarasota Bay, at a development called Aqua by the Bay, the newest proposal would fill in wetlands and add a disruptive wall to the bay.
The area west of Long Bar Point is among the last stretches of Sarasota Bay’s natural shoreline.
The over 500 acres at Long Bar Pointe in Bradenton on the eastern shore of Sarasota Bay is being built out in pieces. Aqua Phase one is already completed. The newer proposal is bigger. The Army Corps of Engineers calls it Sea Spray. There is Aqua Phase II and a proposed development the Corps describes as nearly 2,500 condos and townhomes and a condo tower. It needs federal permission because building it would fill about three acres of wetlands.
The developer is Carlos Beruff, appointed by the past two governors to various boards, including the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
Beruff and business partner Larry Lieberman bought this land in 2012. Initial plans included a marina that Suncoast Waterkeeper opposed. Abbey Tyrna is executive director of Suncoast Waterkeeper.
Dr. Abbey Tyrna
Abbey Tyrna: Suncoast Waterkeeper started in 2012 to fight a marina going in off of Aqua at Longbar Point. That was the inception of Suncoast Waterkeeper, and that marina’s not there, thankfully, because the area of the bay around Longbar is extremely shallow, filled with seagrasses and hard bottoms and oyster habitats. The marina would certainly destroy that area, not to mention the last remaining old growth wetlands along the coast there—both mangroves and freshwater.
NB: The marina was never built, but the development was, and with it, a wall used to hold back fill and prevent erosion. Suncoast Waterkeeper opposed it, too. The one proposed now is longer and not set back as far as the previous wall. Suncoast Waterkeeper says it would impact the connections nearby mangroves depend on.
AT: The number one sensitivity of mangroves is based on hydrologic connections and hydrologic changes, so it stands to reason that, when you disrupt the hydrology in a mangrove forest through this gabion wall, you are going to alter and also impair the mangrove forest.
NB: The agency deciding on the wetlands is the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps told WSLR News its power comes from two federal laws, with the Clean Water Act covering wetlands and the Rivers and Harbors Act, covering navigable waters. Zoning and land use are not under the Corps.
Destroy wetlands in one place, and a legal practice called mitigation banking lets you pay to restore the wetlands somewhere else. In this case, that would be at a preserve in Lee County called Little Pine Island—more than a hundred miles away.
WSLR News asked the Corps whether buying credits there is equivalent to protecting wetlands in Bradenton. They did not answer directly but said mitigation banks are often environmentally preferable because they pool money and expertise in one place.
Suncoast Waterkeeper is not convinced.
AT: That’s really silly, because we’re exporting our ecosystem services to a totally different watershed and region. That mitigation bank is over 100 miles away, so it’s not going to affect Manatee County or Manatee County natural resources. The environmental trade-off should be local.
NB: Researchers who have studied wetland mitigation found replacement wetlands often underperform the ones at the original site, filtering less water, buffering fewer storms and sometimes not taking at all.
The public had its say this summer with more than a thousand comments before the period closed August 7. Among them, an objection from former Manatee County commissioner Joe McClash asking the Corps to deny the permit outright.
The Corps said private citizens, environmental groups and community organizations asked for a public hearing, but it will not rule on that until it finishes compiling every comment. The Corps told WSLR News a public hearing is “not a public forum for opposition” but a tool to gather information written comments did not provide.
Tyrna said Suncoast Waterkeeper is already seeing concerning signs in the bay there and will keep engaging, including at a hearing, if one is granted.
The Corps said there were two review options—a full Environmental Impact Statement, or a lighter Environmental Assessment. They chose the assessment. Only significant harm that cannot be mitigated would trigger the more comprehensive review, and the Corps says most applications never get there.
Beruff’s expanded credit line for the next round of construction comes from American Momentum Bank. In a statement on the bank’s website, Beruff said the project would “dominate West Bradenton for the next 10 to 15 years.”
AT: The main point is that the area is the last intact natural area of Sarasota Bay. Any disruption to that mosaic of natural resources from the freshwater forested wetlands that contribute to the mangroves, that contribute to the oysters and the seagrass and the hard bottom habitats that all coexist right there—any disturbance is going to change and alter the entire system. We’re trying to prevent that from happening.
NB: A final decision on the permit is likely months away.
Reporting for WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.
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