County Workshopping Capital Improvements
By Lisa Neff
Manatee County Commissioners are working to budget the capital for the next five years of capital improvements.
They’re also prioritizing projects.
The board of county commissioners held several meetings at the administration building in Bradenton earlier this month to workshop a new budget, including a session June 11 to discuss a recommended capital improvement plan for fiscal 2026-30.
The board heard from county administrator Charlie Bishop and CFO Sheila McLean, who presented new CIP requests in the plan and continued funding requests.
“The capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2026-30 is a total of$2,466,768,274, pretty large, but the entire capital improvement plan with existing projects that are already funded totals $5.4 billion,” McClean said at the start of her presentation. “I cannot say enough that the county has put almost $3 billion of their own resources to make sure a lot of these projects happen.”
The recommended plan, as of June 11, contained 815 projects, including 53 projects introduced in the plan, 143 infrastructure sales tax projects, 263 projects needing added funding and 552 projects not needing additional funding.
The document showed fiscal year 2026 recommended funding sources included $106,644,856 from impact fees, $42,219,553 from rates, $4,006,726 from general revenue, $261,911,111 from debt proceeds, $45,121,944 from the infrastructure sales tax, $3,792,273 from gas taxes and $5,493,131 from other revenues.
The impact fee estimates in the plan, to be conservative, did not reflect a recent board vote to raise the fees but, McClean said, “We have a balanced budget in the capital improvements plan.”
In the overall plan, transportation improvements were the largest expense category, followed by potable water, wastewater and stormwater.
“Obviously, the major impact has been transportation and public safety, but this year stormwater has taken a large influx with a total of 32 projects in the CIP,” McClean said.
She added, “There’s a lot of categories that are receiving all these impacts. It just shows the levels of service that are diversified all over the county to make this county work.”
“New requests” in the plan included work in the county preserves, such as trailhead restrooms at Perico Preserve on Perico Island, a bridge replacement in Duette, camping and kayak amenities at Rye and improvements to parking, restrooms, trails and more at Emerson.
The presentation materials also listed $142,500 for batting cages and a new pavilion at Blackstone Park and $406,000 for restrooms at Lakewood Ranch Park.
The presented plan contained many, many other improvements, including main projects that have been in the works but, as McClean said might need “a little bit of influx … or none at all.”
Improvements at the Bishop Animal Shelter — conducted in two phases — were projected to cost $12.7 million while improvements to an emergency medical services facility were at $4.3 million.
The plan also showed $38.1 million for work at the Bradenton Area Convention Center in Palmetto, as well as $5.1 million for upgrades at Blackstone Park, $5.4 million for fields at Braden River Park, $6.6 million for improvements at Country Club East Park, $1.8 million for synthetic turf at Lincoln Park, $4.9 million for the pickleball and racquet center at the Premier Sports Complex and $4.5 million for two synthetic surf fields at the complex.
Road improvements included 63rd Avenue East from U.S. 301 to Tuttle, 75th Street West from 20th Avenue West to Manatee, the Canal Road corridor, Lena Road from State Road 70 to State Road 64/Manatee Avenue, Lorraine Road from SR 64 to 59th Avenue East, Moccasin Wallow and Upper Manatee River Road North.
The plan also contained stormwater improvements, including $2.8 million in Bayshore Gardens, $8.6 million project for Palm Aire pipe replacement and rehabilitation, more than $7 million on Wade Canal channel improvements and nearly $8 million for Sylvan Oaks work.
The first half of the meeting contained the presentation of the plan, with some discussion among commissioners about priorities and policies. During the second part of the meeting, commissioners focused on what they wanted to prioritize, change, remove or evaluate before a reconciliation meeting later this summer. So the plan presented June 11 will be amended.
Commissioner Carol Ann Felts summed up her priorities for fast-growing District 1, saying, “We’re not in a position right now in District 1 to address wants. We need to address essentials and right now … especially as we’re going into hurricane season, we want to talk about stormwater out there. We want to talk about roadways out there. … I’m concerned about roadways out there.”
Commissioner Tal Siddique, District 3, requested pulling the widening and four-laning of 59th Street West from the plan, which was seconded by Commissioner George Kruse, District 7, who said he’s for “never speaking of it again.”
Siddique also said he wants to prioritize investment in trails and public transit to enhance the transportation network.
A new budget will be adopted in September for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
“This is the first crunch of the budget,” McLean said. “On July 31, we will come back to you.”