A Manatee County resident is urging commissioners to pump the brakes on a 1,000-page Comprehensive Plan rewrite, alleging the consulting firm that wrote it has a conflict of interest and that proposed new roads east of County Road 675 would push development into rural areas near Lakewood Ranch.
Robert Cusick published an open letter in The Bradenton Journal on Sunday, Aug. 2, identifying six "fatal flaws" in the plan. The Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to hold a transmittal hearing on the rewrite Thursday, Aug. 6. If approved, the plan goes to the state for review, not immediate adoption.
What Cusick alleges
Cusick's central complaint: Kimley-Horn, the firm Manatee County hired in 2023 to rewrite the plan, also represents developers seeking rezonings before the same commission. He calls that "a clear conflict of interest" and says the rewrite expanded the document by roughly 200 pages in ways that appear "very developer friendly."
He also argues there's no rush.
Florida statute does not require the county to submit a revised plan until December 2027, Cusick wrote, and the county already has 46,000 vacant housing units plus more than 50,000 approved to be built, enough to meet population needs through 2035.
On infrastructure, Cusick points to Map 5D in the draft plan, which shows future roads extending east of CR 675 into largely agricultural land. He wrote that new roads "magically appeared" on the map and warned that subsequent development would turn the area into "more of an overbuilt mess like that in Lakewood Ranch surrounding Bourneside and Uhlein roads."
Other concerns include a proposed reduction in the potable water standard from 110-125 gallons per day per person to 106 gallons (Policy 9.5.1.1), language changes that would shift building dispute resolution from the commission to the Building Department director, and the absence of a District 1 commissioner to represent the county's primary growth area. Commissioner Carol Felts died Feb. 24, and the seat remains vacant.
Kimley-Horn and county commissioners did not respond to requests for comment before publication.
How the plan got here
Kimley-Horn held 15 public meetings between August 2023 and April 2026, according to Your Observer. The county released the full draft April 19. The summary of amendments alone runs 219 pages.
At the June 4 land use meeting, about 20 residents asked for more time. Commissioners voted 5-1 to delay the transmittal from June to Aug. 6, with Chair Tal Siddique casting the lone dissenting vote.
Commissioner Bob McCann argued for the delay at that June 4 meeting: "Just like what happened with the wetlands, which actually got me elected, we were told it was just a transmittal. Well, it wasn't. There's a difference between participation over three years and seeing the finished product."
The county also hosted six "Envision Manatee" workshops in March and April 2026, including one at the Lakewood Ranch Library on March 28. But resident Elaine Johnson told commissioners at the June 4 hearing that she attended a Kimley-Horn workshop and "had trouble getting questions answered."
What's at stake Aug. 6
The commission currently has six members following Felts' death, meaning a 3-3 tie would kill the transmittal. The current board includes Chair Siddique, George Kruse, Amanda Ballard, Mike Rahn, Bob McCann and Jason Bearden.
State law (Senate Bill 180) prevents the county from including provisions deemed "more restrictive or burdensome." The county has said it plans to wait until SB 180 expires in October 2027 to transmit a second updated plan addressing items like larger wetland buffers.
Residents can submit written comments to [email protected] before the Thursday, Aug. 6 hearing. The full draft is posted on the county's planning page.
