Lee Amos: Manatee County voters can make a big impact on clean water and flood protection

We are the last generation that can save Manatee County’s water and land.

Truly, over the next 10 or 20 years, the remaining open spaces – be they farms, fields or forests, one acre or 1,000 acres – will be developed.

With that development, we will lose those irreplaceable lands that currently provide the community with clean water, scenic roadways, food and farms, forests and fields.

Green will give way to grey. The outcome will be disastrous, unless we achieve balance – unless we make smart decisions today.

Thankfully, Manatee County voters will have that option this November, with a citizen-led referendum on their ballot entitled “Water Quality Protection, Fish and Wildlife Habitat Preservation, and Park Ad Valorem Tax and Bonds.”

A vote “FOR” the referendum will provide funding to save irreplaceable parts of beautiful Manatee County, forever.

In my opinion, Manatee County voters may never have a better chance to make a bigger impact on clean water, flood protection, the economy, the environment, and overall community well-being, than with this single vote.

Now, if you’re considering the referendum, your first question might be, “What sort of land will be saved?” Well, the answer may be as diverse and beautiful as Manatee County itself. Everything from small vacant lots to large ranches are eligible, as long as they accomplish the ballot purpose to “… protect drinking water sources and water quality, preserve fish and wildlife habitat, prevent stormwater runoff pollution, and provide parks ….”

Imagine a five-acre beach-front parcel on Anna Maria Island, and a 500-acre cattle ranch on the Manatee River. Both places offer the public something special, and both places would be eligible.

County-wide, this means preserving a network of rivers, working farmlands, wildlife management areas, parks, trails and preserves that all serve the common good. So, regardless of what your interest is, this program will benefit you. Whether you love to fish the waters or just drink them; whether you’re crazy for hiking, or prefer to cruise a scenic road; whether you work the soil with your hands, or just enjoy eating its produce; whether you want to lose yourself on a trail, or find yourself a trophy deer; whether you visit the park every day, or barbeque once a year with family, this ballot measure will preserve special places for you to enjoy.  

“How will the preservation program work?”

After passage, funding will finance the acquisition, improvement and management of essential lands. Accountability and transparency are built into the referendum.

Broadly speaking, the program will rely upon objective property evaluation criteria, a citizen oversight committee, preliminary and final County Commission approval of all transactions, and an annual audit of finances.

Similar programs have been in existence for years in most Florida Counties. In fact, Manatee County is the only county on Florida’s southwest coast that doesn’t have a dedicated funding source for land preservation. These programs work.

“How does saving land help water?”

The answer is simple: clean land makes clean water. Manatee County’s drinking water comes from two major sources – a reservoir on the Braden River, and a reservoir on the Manatee River – and all that water comes from rainfall, which gathers on fields and forests, and then into creeks and rivers.

Now, if those fields and forests become roads, sidewalks, yards and roofs, we will see significant pollution, and a massive cost to taxpayers to clean the water for drinking. The same will happen to our bays and beaches.

The cheapest and most enjoyable way to have clean water is to preserve multiple-use, multiple-benefit green spaces.

Finally, you may ask, “What will this cost me?”

The average homeowner in Manatee County will pay $29 per year, based on an average residential taxable value in Manatee County of $193,378.

That’s just $2.40 per month.

Would you pay $2.40 a month to keep the beach clean and swimmable, to keep drinking water safe to drink, to prevent destructive floods, to provide parks and preserves for your everyday use and enjoyment, to save land for fish and game and other wildlife? 

If yes, then you must vote “FOR” the water and land referendum. Otherwise, you are likely to lose much of what makes Manatee County great.

Please, visit voteforwaterandland.org to learn more, and please vote this November.

Lee Amos is Land Steward for the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast.