A Bradenton Beach landscaping project to spruce up the commercial district wound up in a bit of a tangle.
The $50,000 initiative, approved in April between the Bradenton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency and developer Shawn Kaleta, included hiring M&F Landscape of Bradenton to plant 80 coconut palms along Bridge Street, including the Gulf Drive intersection.
However, Gulf Drive in Bradenton Beach is a state road and the CRA didn’t get permission for the plantings from the Florida Department of Transportation.
The CRA, comprising Mayor John Chappie, city commissioners and business owner Ed Chiles, works to promote projects in the district with incremental tax dollars.
The goal of the palm project was to beautify the area but the committee members overlooked the DOT permission.
Chappie, in a May 30 interview with The Islander, said he did not check with the DOT before the plantings but he soon heard from DOT’s District 1 landscape architect Darryl Richard, who is president of and president of the Florida Urban Forestry Council. Richard said 19 palms on DOT property needed to be uprooted.
“He just let me know we had to get them out of the FDOT right of way,” Chappie said.
Within 24 hours of speaking with Richard, crews were removing the palms, the mayor said.
“I am the one. I should’ve checked with FDOT first and I didn’t and I take full responsibility for that,” Chappie said.
The mayor said Alexander palms replaced by coconut palms on the state rights of way were planted by the city more than 10 years ago, also without a DOT permit, and he assumed the new plantings would amount to simple replacements.
“We have a maintenance agreement with FDOT but the bottom line is I should have reached out to the DOT. I should have called Darryl and I should have talked to him but I didn’t and I own that. Nobody else in the city owns that but me,” Chappie said.
Chappie said eight of the 19 palms removed were being kept off-site while 11 palms were transplanted to city property in the district, which is bordered by Cortez Road, Sarasota Bay, Fifth Street South and the Gulf of Mexico.
Chappie maintains the CRA-approved project is still good for the commercial district.
Richard, spoke to The Islander May 30 about the project and verified that under state regulations, coconut palms are not allowed on state roads due to safety concerns about visibility and falling fruit and limbs.
“There’s a right tree in the right place and there’s a wrong tree in the wrong place and this was definitely the wrong tree in the wrong place,” Richard said.
An agreement for the maintenance of the coconut palms was made between the city and Kaleta, who pledged to indemnify the city against any potential liabilities arising from the trees, including falling coconuts, according to Chappie.
Kaleta, who plans to harvest the coconuts from the trees for his businesses, also pledged a $10,000 donation toward the planting.
Earlier this year, the city implemented a similar agreement to plant coconut palms at the Anna Maria Oyster Bar at the Historic Bridge Street Pier.