Florida neighbors complained of construction dust. Now, there are more rules

Manatee County officials are tightening rules for developers a year after residents first complained about construction dust blowing through their neighborhoods.

The Bradenton Herald reported on similar complaints last April when residents of the Foxbrook subdivision said heavy dust from a new housing community caused respiratory issues, poor driving conditions and expensive cleaning costs.

After hearing from residents last year, county officials put rules in place requiring developers to create a dust control plan to limit construction impacts on neighbors. Builders must limit land clearing to 100 acres at a time, halt construction activity when wind speeds are above 15 mph and place sod in cleared areas.

If developers fail to control the dust leaving their construction sites, they have to shut down construction for a first offense, shut down construction and pay a fine for a second offense and create a revised dust control plan for a third offense.

But residents of the Parrish neighborhood said the rules did not make a significant difference. Now commissioners are looking at other options to bring the dust under control.

County adds new dust control rules

The county will now require contractors to have cameras with live feeds at developments over 100 acres, have equipment follow a haul path within the development and submit weekly reports of dust control measures. The Manatee County Commission approved the rules in a 6-0 vote, with Commissioner Carol Ann Felts absent.

Commissioner George Kruse said the rules that the board has approved so far are not likely to fix the problem, but he said county officials remain committed to finding a solution.

“We’re working on a better solution,” Kruse said. “We’re not going to get you to the fix today. What we are going to do is be able to better monitor what’s wrong while we work on that fix.”

Construction dust still frustrating Manatee County residents

Some residents, like Elizabeth Arnold, complained that developers and home builders have not done enough to reduce the dust blowing from their construction sites.

“The storm that caused all this dust was predicted on the Weather Channel and the news stations for about a week,” Arnold said. “It didn’t sneak up on the builders. They knew it was coming. I think their basic attitude was, ‘The storm’s coming, and people will probably get a lot of dust at the beginning, but it’ll rain, and that will solve our problem,’ which is callous and cavalier, but it saved them a lot of money, they didn’t have to run the water trucks.”

Other residents, like Dalton Nelson, pointed out that the rules approved last year did not appear to work.

“Nine times out of 10, any particular developer at the cost of facing these fines is going to say, ‘Yeah, go ahead and rack up the fines. We’re going to pay them and we’re going to continue to get this project done, because time is money, and we can’t afford to have this job drag on any longer,’” Nelson said. “They want those $400,000, $600,000, million-dollar houses in there more than they care about the little neighbor next door.”

Manatee County leaders look for dust solutions

Commissioner Tal Siddique, who represents District 3, which includes residents near a new housing community in West Bradenton called SeaFlower, said county officials will encourage developers to follow the rules.

“I think some of the land developers are likely willing to work with us,” Siddique said. “After all, they are seeding some of the land. But the fundamental problem is the people that see this as the cost of doing business.”

County officials plan to come up with other solutions and look into what other communities are doing. They may ask contractors to complete a phase of construction before they start another, limit work areas by total development for a single owner or multiple owners and set requirements for air quality and dust monitoring.

County officials will consider several options at a future meeting.