By Holmes Beach Commissioner Terry Schaefer
Special to The Islander
Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, R-District 3, continues to pursue his ill-conceived Manatee Public Beach parking garage plan by searching for funding through a public-private partnership, as the county apparently has no available funding other than additional debt for this counterproductive plan.
A bill, CS/HB 781, recently signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, allows for this option without the traditional requests for proposal and the competitive bidding process.
Van Ostenbridge, who is running for at-large District 7 in the Aug. 20 GOP primary, failed to realize that parking garages were disallowed for years prior to his threat to the Holmes Beach commission, when he said “there will be consequences” if you follow through.
His blatant threat resulted in continued rejection of funding for legitimate city projects by the tourist development council and county commission.
The question is: Will a garage add safe additional parking capacity and assist in traffic control surrounding the public beach, when in fact excess parking exists as monitored on weekends and holidays by our chief of police? The most recent count of beach parking in Holmes Beach totaled 803 spots, plus the potential of two nearby church lots.
Facts:
- On average, 100-220 unused parking spots exist at peak traffic periods. The city has clearly marked all beach access streets, provided on-site signage, created a QR code to identify all parking availability on the city’s website to hasten finding availability and continues to provide free parking for all.
The county has confirmed that a garage will be paid parking, which will result in Holmes Beach and other cities considering converting street beach parking to paid parking to counter overcrowding.
Holmes Beach continues to resist paid parking and has no allowance for paid parking in its land development code.
- The city has an interlocal agreement with Manatee County requiring a minimum of 500 beach parking spots, while we presently provide 775.
The city has agreed to amend the agreement by increasing the language to the 775 spots. This agreement is necessary to qualify for county beach re-nourishment funding.
The county has estimated the building project would require 2-plus years to complete, eliminating the approximate 425 existing spots on-site during construction. Where would visitors find those missing spots? My guess would be more remote spots.
- The city has negotiated permission with the two largest churches closest to the beach to allow parking on their lots. The Episcopal Church of the Annunciation offers an additional 55 spots, only asking for a donation. St. Bernard Catholic Church had agreed to consider and awaits contact from the county commission to specify their request. Their lot would add approximately 300+ additional spots.
- The public beach in Holmes Beach appears to be beyond capacity at peak periods. What would an additional 475 spots, adding an additional 1000-plus people do for safety with only one lifeguard tower? By comparison, Coquina Beach has nine lifeguard towers.
- H.B. 475, passed by the Legislature at the request of the county commission, listed no conditions, such as stormwater engineering, environmental studies or beach capacity studies to evaluate the sustainability of a garage.
For additional retribution, the bill eliminated all Holmes Beach involvement or ordinance compliance before groundbreaking. The current lot is permeable sand and soil, the garage will be concrete, where will the water drainage go during storms or surges?
- A garage would be a bandage as the real issue is traffic not parking and a garage would only exacerbate the congestion arriving and departing.
A longer-term potential solution would include off-island parking with free public transit to the beach accelerating travel by a center lane for emergency and mass transit vehicles only, minimizing congestion on the causeway and new bridge.
This involves planning and funding for said expansion, a concept rarely deployed by the current county commission.
With traffic backed up to 43rd Street on Manatee Ave on the weekends, what will the thousands of new homes already approved by the county result in five years from now? A funding source for off-island parking studies and acquisition of the land could be the millions of dollars from the
bed tax, again contributed by visitors, significantly from Holmes Beach properties.
- Think about this concept of public-private partnership, often successful in many communities.
However, who do you speculate would be a front-runner for the project, perhaps Carlos Beruff and his associates, the principal financial backer of five of the six sitting county commissioners?
The private partner would be the beneficiary of a long-term income stream and capable of setting the price per hour for all attempting to enjoy our remaining paradise.
Joni Mitchell had it right 60 years ago with “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot.” Think about the options and facts presented and consider expressing your beliefs in letter form to the county commissioners and most importantly, vote.
Manatee County is on the cusp of taking your free beach parking. Will that result in only the financially capable affording the beaches?
Vote.
Here is a a better informed thought. Sometimes there are perceived legislative missteps when dealing with complex growth related issues like the exponential parking growth on the island. The creation of necessary parking regulations that resulted in inconveniences for some residents in all 3 cities was regrettable. However, none of these necessary regulations can possibly justify the extreme result of the proposed parking garage at the Manatee County Public Beach.
Terry Shaffer’s OpEd is a fair and accurate historical description of what has brought Holmes Beach to this point and details well the havoc that will result. The County got what they wanted and more but didn’t like taking the blame for it among residents. So they hatched a revenge plot and engaged the State in wreaking punishment on those city residents and government officials who complained about or resisted the creation of more public parking.
It is a rather Draconian measure to punish a municipality government for trying to protect its people, environment and promote safety from the dramatic negative effects of county created tourism and growth yet here we are. Divided and conquered. The City of HB and the other cities too were forced (extorted) to make a few small, unpopular parking changes by the county. They were told to do it (or lose beach renourishment funds). But apparently it wasn’t enough although it was always more than what was required by earlier mutual agreement.
Or was that never the real goal? Hmmm.
Is it likely the money making garage was the object the whole time. How can you blame the city commissioners and mayors for any of this? Put the blame where it goes – the County led by Kevin Van Ostenbridge and the State led by Will Robinson and Jim Boyd. When these greedy politicians build the government/private sector parking garage with their developer buddies and reap the financial benefits off the residents backs what next? Get ready there will be more. If you need to blame someone try not voting for VanOstenbridge, Will Robinson and Jim Boyd. Your current city officials were tied to the tracks with the train coming and many of you residents didn’t support them and continue to blame them over a few petty parking place changes which was not a big deal in the overall scheme of things. Short sighted. Very.
If there is a perceived problem with the parking plan for Holmes Beach proposed by the County and approved by the State, it is an entirely self-inflicted one. The parking garage is a direct result of city officials going out of their way to restrict street parking (“free beach parking”) to the point residents can’t park in front of their own homes without a (paid) permit and other restrictions. It was that very street parking that ALLOWED the less “financially capable” to access the beach. Manatee County isn’t on the cusp of taking away free beach parking . . . Holmes Beach city officials already did.