When neighbors of a defunct equestrian center near Bradenton fought off a proposed housing development in 2025, they thought they had saved the area from more flooding and traffic that would come with the 175-unit rental community.

The community never imagined a new proposal would resurface with nearly four times the number of units. And now, they have no public voice in the process.

Developers have filed plans with Manatee County to build more than 640 apartment units on the 29-acre property through Florida’s controversial Live Local law. By setting aside 40% of the project as affordable housing, the development can bypass traditional public hearings and government scrutiny — meaning this time, the neighbors will have few options to fight back. 

“When I realized it was going to be expedited development and no public comment,” said Jane Fedorczyk, the homeowner’s association president of the nearby Magnolia Point subdivision. “I really freaked out then.”

Indianapolis-based Kittle Property Group is among more than 25 developers and landholders that have signaled plans to build under the Live Local Act in Manatee County. If all were approved, those projects would bring as many as 5,300 new units to the area, according to an Suncoast Searchlight analysis of public records.

But unlike neighboring Sarasota County, which is entrenched in a lawsuit with developers over the county’s interpretation of the law, county commissioners in Manatee have taken a softer approach.

The proposed Kittle project includes both affordable senior housing and traditional rentals with all of the units reserved for residents making less than 60% of the area median income, which in Manatee County would be about $48,000 a year for a single person.

One of the proposed projects on the site will be called Harborline at Sarasota, where the developer plans to build 312 rental units across eight, three-story buildings. Luminara Place will be the senior living facility, with 331 units built across four, four-story buildings.

A developer representative associated with the project did not return a phone call seeking comment on Thursday. 

Opponents of the project contend that it is a major escalation from the earlier proposal by a different developer, Milwaukee-based Homes by Towne. That plan called for 175 single-story units and included stormwater improvements above what county standards would have required.

Peter Powell, a resident in Magnolia Point, said he worries the Kittle Property Group is using the Live Local law to push through a much larger development without community input.

“This is a big company who, with their lawyers, are trying to use the Live Local loophole against my community,” Powell said.

Organizing a community 

Horse stables, barns and open space dot the 29-acre property sandwiched between Tuttle Avenue and Prospect Road where the proposed Live Local development would rise. Two bald eagles have returned year after year to a large breeding nest that residents said makes their community unique.

The property also drains into Rattlesnake Slough, a major part of Manatee County’s stormwater infrastructure, compounding fears that additional concrete would overwhelm an already strained stormwater system that failed residents two years ago. They also fear their homes will lose value.

To protect their community, neighbors of the site and those from several surrounding neighborhoods have started to organize over the past month. They have collected more than 600 signatures on a petition opposing the project and raised $6,200 to pay for a lawyer to challenge the staff’s interpretation of Live Local. 

They also launched the Southern Manatee Association for Responsible Transition, a nonprofit organization focused on curbing overdevelopment, to explore any options to halt the project.

Fedorczyk said the group doesn’t want to end up in a lawsuit but that they will use all resources they can to make sure there’s responsible, compatible development on the site.

Fedorczyk said SMART Manatee, the acronym the group plans to use for the nonprofit, will advocate for more than 1,500 homeowners in the surrounding area who will be impacted including nearby neighborhoods Quail Run, Riomar and The Trails.

Residents have expressed frustration that county commissioners haven’t done more to stop Live Local from harming residents. The new proposal will only be reviewed by county staff and not a traditional public hearing before county commissioners.

It’s not only homeowners who are upset. A nearby church has offered meeting space and has joined forces with the neighborhoods fighting the development. 

Jeffrey Weaver, lead pastor at Crosspointe Church, said churches typically are fine with more residents as it means more opportunity to grow the congregation. But the size of the project has him worried.

“We welcome the people,” he said, “but not the congestion.” 

Commissioner warned residents about future projects 

One commissioner, who had voted in favor of the earlier development for the site, warned residents more than a year ago that their advocacy could backfire.

“You finally have a thoughtful person trying to build a thoughtful project here, and it’s going to bite you because someone else is going to put something there you really don’t want,” County Commissioner George Kruse told the crowd in June 2025.

In an interview this week with Suncoast Searchlight, Kruse maintains that it was an error for the county commission to reject the smaller project.

“Everyone keeps believing that as long as we keep declining things, everything’s going to turn into a park,” Kruse told Suncoast Searchlight. “At some point, people need to be a little bit more thoughtful about their pushback and sometimes just realize you’re next to land that’s going to be developed.”

In Sarasota County, commissioners have pushed back on Live Local projects in rural lands, blocking projects located in its eastern regions in April, while arguing that agricultural properties do not become mixed-use simply because their zoning allows limited commercial activities.

A component of the Live Local Act requires a property to be primarily zoned for mixed-use, commercial or industrial. It was initially pitched by lawmakers as a way to turn underused commercial properties into affordable housing developments already near infrastructure.

Sarasota County attorneys have argued in court that uses such as veterinary clinics and plant nurseries are ancillary to the underlying residential zoning, which would disqualify the Live Local projects.

While the Manatee County property is zoned as agricultural land, it’s located closer to developed infrastructure than the projects in Sarasota County. Still, the project would be located on a part of Tuttle Avenue that is just two lanes, which residents believe can not handle such a large project.

In Manatee, commissioners told Suncoast Searchlight their attorney has advised them not to intervene in any of the Live Local applications.

Kruse has been an outspoken critic of Tallahassee preemption, which has been used to pass legislation that strips away local control of growth, like Senate Bill 180 and Live Local.

But he said he could not support commissioners stepping into a fight over Live Local, instead trusting staff to apply the law and zoning code. He said just because the site has been allowed to advance in the county’s development review doesn’t mean it will get through the review process in its current configuration.

He also said the 2025 denial of the project was exactly why Live Local was proposed by lawmakers in the first place.

“We push back on (preemptions) because we say we should be able to handle things ourselves, which is true,” Kruse said. “But they don’t just come out of thin air.”

Developers have argued, and Manatee planners have agreed, that the agricultural zoning includes commercial uses such as a funeral chapel, offices near major intersections, bus and train passenger stations and adult daycare centers, according to an email from Casey Zempel, the county’s communications division manager.

Residents contend that the county erred in its determination, and they plan to fight the development based on a lack of adequate roads.

Mike Rahn, the commissioner whose district the project is located in, said he understands the frustration from his constituents and also believes the project is out of scale. But he also sees risk to taxpayers if the commission tries to block the development.

Those on the losing end of Live Local lawsuits can be on the hook for $250,000 in court costs for each case.

“I’m not happy with that,” he told Suncoast Searchlight about the project. “Our issue is they have come in as a Live Local project, and I’ve explained to citizens, the state preempts local government on these projects.”

Derek Gilliam is a watchdog/investigative reporter for Suncoast Searchlight. Email him at derek@suncoastsearchlight.org.