Holmes Beach commissioners have a full agenda planned for their final work session of the year.
The work load includes the traffic committee’s presentation of its plan to ban street and right-of-way parking in all residential neighborhoods in the city.
Ironically, committee chair Carol Soustek, newly appointed to the city commission, will now have a vote on her plan.
Soustek and the committee have worked on all angles of the plan, including drafting an ordinance.
They also researched the parking requirements so as not to impact federal funding for beach renourishment projects. They sent their plan to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to be sure the plan fits the parameters.
The plan ultimately reduces the number of parking spaces, but relocates signed parking spaces to commercial areas, boosting the counted number of spaces for renourishment purposes.
It would prohibit parking on residential streets except by permit, which would be obtained from the Holmes Beach Police Department.
The commission will hear the plan at its next meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive.
There is plenty of parking at the public beaches. My street gets so crowded that you cant even get two cars passed each other. I have lived on the same street for 45 years, and it has gone from a quiet street to an overcrowded “mini public beach.” If you lived on one of the residential roads I think your attitude of it being snobbish and negative would change. I hope they pass it and finally do something for the residents instead of always catering to the visitors.
Do you want day visitors or not? If not, say so by passing the ordinance, and we’ll stay away. Oh, how we’ll stay away… We’ll stay away from island businesses. We’ll encourage our elected representatives to stay away with our tax dollars.
We have a condo in Bradenton and spend about one week a month there. We enjoy our visits to AM island…walking the beach, eating at restaurants. I view the emphasis on restricting parking to be very negative. For the millions of tax dollars that are spent yearly to provide the needs of the island, you would think that a more friendly attitude towards visitors and vacationers would be displayed.
Adopting such a parking ban will make our city as cold, snobbish and uninviting as Long Boat Key. Our beaches are for the public and available to everyone, but with this ban we are saying “KEEP OUT”.
Is this what we really want? I don’t think so. We should be of the people, by the people and for the people, not just for the select few.
Seems to me a resident should have some rights, and not have cars & trucks parked in front of their house. That doesn’t seem fair & inviting either.