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Residents press county on Waterline Road safety, stormwater and capacity during public comment
Summary
At the start of the April 23 meeting multiple residents called on commissioners to prioritize traffic calming, signals and stormwater management on Waterline Road and nearby corridors, saying current conditions threaten safety and that approvals should not outpace infrastructure.
Several dozen residents used the public-comment period to press the board on safety and infrastructure in northern Manatee County. Public commenters described repeated near-miss collisions on Waterline Road (also called Pipeline Road), chronic standing water in roadside ditches even during drought, and concerns about aging transmission pipes beneath the roadway. Speakers urged traffic-calming measures, signals or temporary peak-hour controls and asked the county to prioritize stormwater management and roundabout completion at several intersections along State Road 64.
Speakers who have organized around the corridor — including representatives of a Water Line Road Preservation Group — asked the board to delay approvals for large projects until solutions are in place. Commissioners reiterated tools for requesting traffic calming (county webpage and CIP nomination) and noted that some roundabouts and design work are already in various stages; staff pointed attendees to the county’s traffic-safety programs and to ongoing CIP planning.
Public comments set the tone for later hearings on large rezoning and PDC items; several board deliberations made explicit reference to this public input when weighing road capacity and stormwater commitments.
Key resident themes: requests for a traffic signal at a high-risk intersection, concerns about 50+ year-old concrete water transmission pipes under Waterline Road, calls for immediate attention to ditching and drainage in the 64 corridor and insistence that approvals not outpace critical infrastructure.
