SimplyDwell, trying to offer less expensive housing, wanted to build in wetlands.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: June 25, 2025
Host: The Manatee County Commission rejected a 440-home project in suburban Parrish proposed by a division of local development heavyweight Neal Communities. Among the issues: SimplyDwell wants to build in wetlands that flooded during last year’s storms. We have the details.
Johannes Werner: Pat Neal, founder of Neal Communities and the developer behind the biggest number of new homes in this region, is facing unusual challenges these days.
SimplyDwell promotional image.
For one, there’s the sagging real estate market. Buyers are not snatching up his half million dollars-plus suburban homes as they used to. He did respond to that by moving his business downscale. His latest creation is SimplyDwell, an outfit specializing in homes that sell in the upper three hundreds to lower four hundreds, covering so far five developments on the Suncoast from Manatee to Lee counties. Three of its attainably-priced projects are located in Manatee County, two of them in fast-sprawling Parrish. But a third Parrish project was rejected by the Manatee County Commission last week.
Which brings us to the other challenge facing Pat Neal: politics. Decision-making on his home turf is not going his way, as it used to just a year ago. Newly elected grassroots commissioners on the Manatee County Commission are now uttering the “M” word—“M” as in building moratorium. And they just voted to boost impact fees on new developments, something Neal objected to, even by threatening to sue.
In a sign of the changing times, Pat Neal did something unusual in April.
Pat Neal, giving two-minute public comment.
Pat Neal: I’m Pat Neal. This is the first time I’ve done this at citizens’ comments since 1979, and on that day, I got into a big fight with Patricia Glass over local property taxes. I’m planning to have a very pleasant two-minute discussion with you at this time.
You and I, Mr. Chairman, attended a presentation that said there were going to be 250,000 new people in our community by 2050. That sounds like a lot. I think it’s true. You know, there’s 49,000 dwelling units already approved in north Manatee County, and you may slow or stop growth, but the market is still there.
JW: That’s Neal, pleading for more road construction. He spoke during a Manatee County Commission meeting in April in person—not through lawyers and consultants in his pay, and he did so during public comment—for the first time in more than four and half decades, as he pointed out.
Map showing the perimeter of the proposed Pope Ranch project. The area flooded during last year’s storms.
But back to his Pope Ranch project in Parrish. In April, the county planning commission, in a narrow vote, recommended approval of a zoning change for the 440-home project near Rutland Road. That was still politics as usual.
But then came the commissioners’ unanimous rejection at a land-use meeting on Thursday last week. During a previous meeting in May, residents concerned about flooding from his project lined up to speak. And county planning staffers recommended rejection as well. They cited elimination of wetland that would require the developer to preserve wetlands elsewhere. They cited the presence of gopher tortoises. They said the developer did not provide enough details about drainage and stormwater designs. And they said traffic would overload a nearby road. At the May meeting, Neal’s consultants asked the county commission to postpone a vote.
When the project came back at last week’s meeting, the commission chair asked whether the consultant representing the property owners and SimplyDwell had anything new to add.
George Kruse: Applicant, do you have any new information?
SimplyDwell representative: No, Mr. Chairman. It’s not particularly complicated. We asked for a continuance so there would be a full board—so that you’d vote as a full board. You have a full board, and we ask that you vote.
JW: Commissioner Bob McCann, who represents the district the SimplyDwell project is located in, made the motion to deny.
George Kruse: And the motion to deny is approved 7-0.
[Applause]
JW: We left voicemail messages to Neal Communities and SimplyDwell but received no response by deadline.
Johannes Werner, reporting for WSLR News.
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