PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. \u2014 A controversial proposal to carve a new waterway through mangroves connecting the Manchester Waterway to the Myakka River has been rejected by Charlotte County Commissioners.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, commissioners voted 4-0, with Chairman Joe Tiseo recusing himself, to halt the project following years of feasibility studies, environmental discussions, and public debate.<\/p>\n
Watch Fox 4’s Alex Orenczuk report on the project:<\/p>\n
Charlotte County sinks proposed $27M Manchester Waterway cut-through project<\/p>\n
The proposed $27 million project, known as the Manchester Cut-Through Project, aimed to improve boating access to the Myakka River and Charlotte Harbor, while enhancing water flow and circulation through the canal system. <\/p>\n
County staff said it could have created a more direct route to open water and reduced stagnation in local waterways.<\/p>\n
But the project faced strong opposition from nearby residents, who raised concerns about flooding, mangrove loss, and cost. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m scared of flooding, since some storm protection will be taken away by opening up areas that help buffer storm surge,” said Lindsey Collingsworth during public comment.<\/p>\n
The plan called for funding the work through a special taxing district, known as a Municipal Service Taxing Unit (MSTU), paid for by property owners in the surrounding neighborhood.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Charlotte County.<\/p>\n
Map showing the three potential Manchester Cut-Through routes \u2014 each connecting neighborhood canals in Port Charlotte to the Myakka River through mangrove areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t make the people of District Four pay for it,” said Ben Summer during public comment.<\/p>\n
“This is going to restrict people from being able to pay their bills and renovate their houses,” said Scott Rogers.<\/p>\n
A county survey sent to more than 7,000 homeowners found 1,458 opposed the project, while 501 supported it, solidifying public resistance to the proposal.<\/p>\n
With Tuesday\u2019s vote, commissioners agreed not to move forward with design or permitting, effectively ending a project that\u2019s been under discussion since 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. \u2014 A controversial proposal to carve a new waterway through mangroves connecting the Manchester Waterway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4194,209,211,210,853,4195,4196,4197,4198,3169,4199,4200],"class_list":{"0":"post-3608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-boaters","9":"tag-cape-coral","10":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","11":"tag-cape-coral-news","12":"tag-charlotte-county","13":"tag-charlotte-county-commissioners","14":"tag-manchester-waterway","15":"tag-mangroves","16":"tag-orenczuk","17":"tag-port-charlotte-florida","18":"tag-water-quality","19":"tag-waterway"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}