The Manatee County Tourist Development Council got behind a Holmes Beach request for $500,000 for some multimodal improvements with one condition — talk about a ferry stop in the city gets serious.
The TDC, meeting at the Center of Anna Maria Island in Anna Maria, considered a request from the city of Holmes Beach to fund path improvements along Marina Drive and the discussion veered into another lane — finding a location for the county-operated ferry boats to stop.
In the end, the TDC unanimously voted to recommend the county commission approve $500,000 in tourist development tax dollars for paths with the stipulation that the county and the city negotiate to create a ferry landing.
“It’s a benefit to Holmes Beach,” said TDC chair Ray Turner, a county commissioner from District 5.
“It’s a natural fit,” added TDC member Gene Brown, the mayor of Bradenton. “It’s all about connectivity to me.”
The ferry operates Wednesday-Sunday between Bradenton and Anna Maria Island, with island stops at the City Pier in Anna Maria and the Historic Bridge Street Pier in Bradenton Beach.
Holmes Beach lacks a pier but has docking at bayside locations, including the county’s Kingfish Boat Ramp on Manatee Avenue and a city-owned dock near the Waterline Villas and Marina on Marina Drive.
Because the ferry service is a public transit operation, the landing locations must be publicly owned, according to Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The boat ramp, officials have agreed as far back as 2022, is not a suitable landing option for several reasons, including Kingfish’s distance from the city center and because it is off the trolley route.
There also have been criticisms of the Waterline site but Falcione said June 10 that the location is ideal and he offered to consult with Holmes Beach officials on a concept.
Falcione also said county grant-writers were working on an application, due this month, for money that would be used to build up the fleet of boats and possibly for docking amenities.
Holmes Beach Commissioner Dan Diggins, who attended the TDC meeting, said, “I see every reason that we should have a landing in Holmes Beach.”
He added, “The optimum is to build a pier.”
Meanwhile, the city now is up for consideration for $500,000 from the bed tax to help complete a gap in its multimodal path along Marina Drive and also along 65th Street.
“Safety, that’s really been our push,” said city engineer Sage Kamiya.
The city project is outside the area the Florida Department of Transportation is analyzing in a project, development and environment study for a complete streets campaign in Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach.