Public input on Long Bar mitigation plan ends April 3

A plan to turn a natural area into a mitigation bank about 5 miles east of Cortez on Sarasota Bay depends on a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

April 3 is the last day the Corps will take public comment on Long Bar Pointe LLLP’s mitigation plan.

The plan is the second such proposal submitted by developers Carlos Beruff and Larry Lieberman.

The Corps rejected their first plan in September 2016, saying the bank would allow the developers to sell credits for mangrove trimming and seagrass restoration where none was needed alongside Aqua By The Bay — the Beruff/Lieberman development now in the Manatee County pipeline.

Under federal regulations, mitigation banks are to provide an ecological lift where the natural environment is being threatened.