If you like your beach, you can keep your beach. The question Manatee County residents are starting to ask is will you be able to get to your beach?

The winter season we just emerged from was by all accounts the biggest Anna Maria Island ever experienced. The most hotel rooms booked, the most houses and condos rented, the longest wait times at the restaurants and the most traffic and parking problems at the beach overflowing on to Island streets. So what’s going to happen when the county adds almost 8,000 residential units? This is in addition to new construction already started like Harbour Isles on Perico Island with almost 700 units.

At the end of May, the county gave the go ahead to build 1,373 residential units and some retail on 229 acres in east Manatee. The same day Manatee Fruit County filed plans with Manatee County for the initial stages of its master planned community called Lake Flores. Manatee Fruit is planning to create a mixed use master planned community built on 1,322 acres in west Bradenton. They are anticipating building 6,500 residences in addition to 1 million square feet of retail space and 2 million square feet of office space in addition to two hotels.

The community will be built in west Bradenton from IMG Academy west to 75th Street between Cortez Road and El Conquistador Parkway and promises to transform existing fields and farm land in west Bradenton. The plan is ambitions with the vision being an entire new community similar to other planned communities in Orlando and the Panhandle, which provide for walking streets, bike trails, lakes and shopping.

Traffic, not just to the beaches but getting around town, is naturally a big issue that will hopefully be addressed through the use of roundabouts and additional road connections. The planners anticipate this to be a 20-year build out and, of course ,so far there is no start date.

Another 20-year build out starting in 2016 is in south Sarasota near Venice. Also at the end of May, Sarasota County gave approval to a Toronto developer to beginning developing 9,200 acres currently called Thomas Ranch. They anticipate developing approximately 75 percent of the property constructing 700 to 2,000 residential housing tracks at a time. How many housing tracks they are planning is not known at this time.

The community will be geared to retirees with the developer believing “baby boomer demographic will continue to look to Florida as a place to retiree.” No surprise there, as it was recently reported by the National Association of Realtors that the Naples/Marco Island region, which as we know, has a majority of retirees, came in number two in the top five housing markets in the country. The region was up 26.6 percent in the first quarter of the year, pushing the median home price to $379,900.

Real estate development can be a wonderful thing. It creates a demand that pushes the value of all property up, increases the tax base and brings in a diversified population. But it’s important to stay alert to what’s being approved and how it will impact your life. Voice your opinion and hope the planners are smart and community minded.

So should we start worrying about beach traffic or is 20 years to far in the future to think about? Bumper to bumper traffic to the beach is something I grew up with and thought those days were behind me. Then again, 20 years is a long time, so maybe they are. Happy July 4th.