Bradenton neighborhoods, island cities to receive flood-control improvements
By Lisa Neff
Neighborhoods that flooded during the 2024 hurricanes are in line for new drainage and stormwater improvements after Manatee County commissioners approved more than $100 million in federal disaster recovery funding.
Commissioners met Oct. 7 and approved infrastructure funding for Bradenton, Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach, Longboat Key, Palmetto and the county as part of the Lasting Manatee Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery initiative.
“This is not simply about repairing what was damaged,” said Lacy Pritchard, the county’s interim director of government relations. “It’s about building stronger infrastructure, reducing future risk and helping our communities recover more quickly when the next storm comes.”
Before the money is released, the projects must meet federal requirements, which may include environmental, cost-reasonableness and duplication-of-benefits reviews, the county said.
The votes Oct. 7 came as emergency alerts warned of coastal flooding from Isaias, which was churning in the western Gulf and forecast to make landfall Oct. 9 near Destin.
The Lasting Manatee funds come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which in January 2025 allocated $252,711,000 in CDBG-DR money to address recovery needs following three 2024 hurricanes — Debby in August of that year, Helene in September and Milton in October.
Lasting Manatee consists of five programs — Home Recovery, Infrastructure Recovery and Resiliency, Buyout and Safe Housing, Rental Recovery and Infrastructure Match. Of the total federal allocation, $75.56 million was reserved for Home Recovery, $20,000 for Rental Recovery and $12,000 for Buyout and Safe Housing.
Commissioners considered the largest share of Lasting Money funding Oct. 7: the $125 million set aside for Infrastructure Recovery and Resiliency Program, which restores and strengthens publicly owned infrastructure affected by the hurricanes.
The window for IRRP applications opened July 1, after a month of reviewing 65 preliminary proposals. After the window closed Sept. 9, county staff and a consulting firm ranked 28 applications and recommended 22 for awards.
“A lot went into the review of these projects, and the lift was heavy for the municipalities and the departments that submitted applications,” Pritchard said.
In Bradenton, funding includes $4.67 million for drainage improvements in the low-lying Crescent Court neighborhood, $3.65 million for a Second Avenue East project to improve drainage and “harden” an emergency evacuation corridor and $3.18 million to construct resilient drainage in the Riverside Drive neighborhood where more than 24 homes structurally flooded in 2024.
The Riverside Drive project would install stormwater trunk lines, drainage structures and independent outfalls to the Manatee River as well as backflow-prevention devices to improve drainage capacity.
The Second Avenue East project will increase stormwater conveyance, reduce backflow-related flooding and improve the roadway’s reliability as an alternative evacuation and emergency access route.
The Crescent Court project involves increasing drainage capacity and reliability, reducing flood depths and durations and improving access for residents and emergency responders during severe storms.
The IRRP also funds two other Bradenton projects: $1.88 million for sanitary sewer laterals serving 350 homes and $1.82 million to construct three emergency potable water interconnections with the county for “post-disaster redundancy.”
For local municipalities, the program includes:
• $270,250 to reconstruct a hurricane-damaged stormwater infiltration system serving Gulf Drive and Archer Way in Anna Maria.
• $246,750 to replace stormwater pipes blocked by rock and sand to help drainage in the commercial district in Bradenton Beach.
• $810,750to rehabilitate stormwater infiltration trenches filled with sand and sediment in Holmes Beach.
• $681,500 for Sleepy Lagoon stormwater improvements and flood mitigation on Longboat Key.
• $3,619,000 for phase one of a wastewater treatment plant expansion in Palmetto.
The municipal allocation amounts were based on population while the projects were recommended based on federal and county criteria.
The county’s allocation — $93.5 million — includes contingency funding and money for projects to harden facilities, buy backup generators for lift stations, complete flood mitigation work, improve stormwater flow and drainage and create a living shoreline at Warner’s Bayou.
Commissioners changed the project list. They removed funding for a public safety logistics center and added $24.9 million for remotely operated automated outfall structures at up to 47 stormwater facilities throughout the Pearce Drain watershed to increase flood storage and improve control of stormwater.
Hurricane Debby’s heavy rainfall exposed the watershed’s limited flood storage capacity and flooding impacting all residences in the Centre Lake subdivision.
“I feel we should be putting money toward resilience and the logistics center can be funded with other buckets of funds,” said Commission Chair Tal Siddique.
Other commissioners agreed.
“When we got this money, my argument was that we need to use it for stormwater and for flooding,” said Commissioner George Kruse. “That’s why we got the money in the first place.”
“This money should be used for what we keep arguing in Tallahassee and D.C. is our No. 1 need, finally catching up to decades of lack of focus and capital toward flooding and stormwater,” Kruse added.
Kruse, noting the morning’s rainfall, said Centre Lake probably floods “every time it drizzles. … Now we have the money to do something proactive.”
After lengthy discussion, commissioners shifted funding from the logistics center to the watershed project.
“This was an important vote today,” Pritchard said.