For decades, discussions about housing development in Manatee County have focused on accommodating suburban-style development.
Among the results: Suburbia is sprawling eastward, farther and farther from the county’s historic core.
With the exception of master-planned Lakewood Ranch, the typical development is low density, dominated by single-family housing in subdivisions disconnected from commercial and community venues.
The emphasis — in planning, politics and public and private investment — on outward-bound development contributed to the decline and neglect of older parts of the county.