Bradenton is moving to bring the last two city-owned pieces of G.T. Bray Park inside city limits, closing a 1.04-acre hole in the municipal boundary more than four decades after the city acquired the land. The city is not proposing new fields, buildings or other construction on the two pieces, which would stay in recreational use.
City Council gave the annexations first reading Sept. 9, and the Planning Commission is scheduled to take up the next step Sept. 16 by assigning both pieces the same zoning and future land use already used across the rest of G.T. Bray. The measures are tentatively scheduled to return to City Council Oct. 14 and Nov. 18.
Bradenton has owned the land since Jan. 31, 1983, when City National Bank of Miami transferred it to the city for $10, according to the deed included with the application. Two pieces nevertheless remained outside the city boundary in unincorporated Manatee County, and City Administrator Rob Perry said the annexations would “bring all city owned land within GT Bray Park into the city’s jurisdiction.”
The larger piece, Parcel A, covers 0.62 acres and sits roughly 1,200 feet east of 59th Street West along 33rd Avenue Drive West. Parcel B is smaller at 0.42 acres but stretches much farther — about 28 feet wide and 660 feet long along 33rd Avenue Drive West, according to the survey drawings.
Because the annexation brings the two pieces under Bradenton’s rules, the city also has to assign its own zoning and future land use. Planners want both designated Recreational/Open Space on the Future Land Use Map and zoned Planned Development Project, or PDP, because those are the classifications already used on the surrounding park property.
PDP zoning is normally used for planned projects or redevelopment, but the Sept. 16 applications do not propose either one here. Staff said the city chose the zoning for consistency with the rest of G.T. Bray, while the Recreational/Open Space category keeps the land in parks and open-space use.
The city already has a 16-inch water main and 24-inch gravity sewer in the area, according to Bradenton Public Works. Parcel A drains toward a city pond on neighboring fire-station property, while Parcel B drains toward Manatee County right-of-way along 59th Street West; police and fire coverage can continue under an existing interlocal arrangement between city and county agencies.
City staff put the result more plainly in its zoning analysis: “The property is in a park and will remain a park.” If the remaining approvals go through, Bradenton will finish the land-use and zoning cleanup on the two holdout pieces later this fall.