Chapter 4. Five- and Ten-Year Maintenance Expansion Plan  

This chapter summarizes the short-term (Years One through Five) and the long-term (Years Six through Ten) maintenance and expansion program of the Port Manatee Master Plan (the Plan) to serve its tenants and to accommodate future demand. It also looks beyond the Port's boundaries within the Planned Development Encouragement Zone (PDEZ) and the Port Manatee Improvement District to identify access improvements that would address the needs of landowners in the adjacent properties while facilitating goods movement to and from the Port. The boundaries of Port-owned land and the PDEZ are shown in Figure 4.1. The Port Manatee Improvement District, within which Port-owned land and the PDEZ are located, extends east from the PDEZ to inclusively encompass approximately 5,000 acres.

Figure 4.1
INTEGRATED PORT-OWNED LAND BOUNDARIES AND PDEZ PROPERTIES

The Port's future has been analyzed in a twofold planning process approach, which addresses both development and maintenance improvements for Port-owned land. In general, successful ports serve as economic engines that provide jobs, both on and off the port, that in turn promote business development.

In proposing these improvements, Port Manatee's focus is on making the best possible use of its existing infrastructure while incrementally adding new facilities as required to meet market demands and changing trends in the maritime industry, so as to attract new carriers, shippers, and commodities to the Port. This chapter concludes with an assessment of the impacts the proposed Plan will have on land uses, public access, historic resources, environmental resources, utilities, and the external transportation system. A later chapter (Chapter 7) translates the identified needs into a five-year capital improvement plan. These capital improvements have been prioritized to advance the competitive position of the Port.

When the 2009 Master Plan was prepared, Port Manatee's cargo throughput was 8.3 million tons, and was divided as follows: 70 percent liquid bulk, 20 percent dry bulk, and 10 percent general cargo, including containerized commodities in more than 6,300 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). In 2014, the Port's cargo throughput was 2.1 million tons, divided as follows: 19 percent liquid bulk, 49 percent dry bulk, and 32 percent general cargo, including containerized commodities in 25,780 TEUs. As explained in Chapter 3, the market assessment underlying this Plan update, the global recession took its toll on Florida, including Port Manatee. Overall cargo tonnage has dropped significantly, but the mix of cargo has also changed significantly since 2009.