The city of Holmes Beach took one state representative’s recommendation for parking improvements and ran with it.
Despite facing criticism for a lack of parking over recent years, the city has spent the past year highlighting hundreds of available roadside parking spaces following a suggestion from state Rep. Will Robinson Jr., R-Bradenton.
Parking in the municipality has been a controversial issue since 2020, when the city implemented a park-by-permit system on certain residential roadways in response to an overload of beachgoers pushed to the area from beach closures in neighboring counties during the coronavirus pandemic.
The city restricted parking in about 480 spaces along residential roadways and began selling $15 decals to residents and property owners to allow them to park in those spots throughout the day.
City officials stand by the system, which they argue has improved the quality of life by reducing parking in residential areas and its side effects, such as litter and noise.
Still, Kevin Van Ostenbridge joined the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners in 2020 and immediately attacked the city’s parking changes for being unfair to mainland residents and visitors.
Robinson sided with Van Ostenbridge and filed House Bill 947 last year to allow the county to build a parking structure on county-owned property at Manatee Public Beach, 4000 Gulf Drive without obtaining a permit from the city.
The bill was signed into law June 23, 2023.
Since the bill’s adoption, the county has presented preliminary plans for a $45 million parking garage that would be funded by tourist taxes and provide 1,500-1,700 paid parking spaces in place of the existing 400-space parking lot at the beach.
It is unclear when or if plans for the structure will be realized due to funding limitations and the county’s prioritization of a new downtown Bradenton parking garage.
During spring break last year, the city hosted a ride-along to show Robinson how much roadside parking remained available throughout the municipality despite its changes.
According to Mayor Judy Titsworth, Robinson suggested the city identify parking spaces instead of leaving motorists to infer their location between the spaces defined by “NO PARKING” signs.
A year after Robinson’s visit, the city’s public works department has identified about 95% of the municipality’s available roadside parking within a quarter mile from the beach with bollards, ropes and signage, according to Titsworth.
Code compliance supervisor JT Thomas took The Islander out for a tour March 27 of the city’s parking improvements, which can be found on either side of Gulf Drive.
Each stretch of roadside parking is identified by bollards marked with a circled “P” for parking and connected with ropes.
Motorists are supposed to park alongside each roped section between two bollards — not outside — and in the same direction as traffic.
The city also created parking by filling in a drainage ditch along the north side of 51st Street, covering it with sod and adding ropes and bollards to identify eight new roadside parking spaces.
Police Chief Bill Tokajer told The Islander March 27 that the city was in the process of adding new signage to notify motorists to park between roped bollards, as some have parked outside them and expressed confusion upon receiving citations.
The city has created a map of beach accesses and identified roadside parking throughout the municipality, which is available at holmesbeachfl.org.
“It’s documented, it’s mapped, and these are real parking spaces,” Titsworth told The Islander March 27. “I think we did really good.”
The chief said, “I am happy with the improvements. I think they’ve done a good job.”
That is a big improvement identifies the permitted parking numerically which would also correspond to location, wasn’t aware that bollard had be expanded to parking delineation since the common use was for mooring ships but apparently the problem is not that people aren’t parking in the parking area the bollard is to delineate the start and end of the space since painted lines don’t work on unpaved shoulders. Great job.