Commercial activity on and around Anna Maria Island is blowing up.
And the city of Holmes Beach is requesting Manatee County’s help in regulating problematic activity.
Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer led a presentation about commerce along the Palma Sola Causeway and also Holmes Beach’s shoreline during a Sept. 3 joint meeting with the Manatee Board of County Commissioners.
He first pointed to the burgeoning commercial activity along the causeway, where vendors offering kayak rentals and horseback rides have been joined by a host of other businesses, including those offering personal watercraft and motorcycle rentals.
The causeway is a stretch of Manatee Avenue West/State Road 64 that runs between the cities of Bradenton and Holmes Beach.
Much of its commercial activity takes place between Palma Sola Boulevard and Flamingo Cay, where the roadway cuts through Palma Sola Bay, resulting in popular beach destinations along both sides of the roadway.
The Florida Department of Transportation operates and maintains the roadway.
However, jurisdiction over the rights of way is not as straightforward.
While the city of Bradenton maintains regulatory jurisdiction over waterway activities along the causeway, a 2024 interlocal agreement transferred maintenance responsibilities to the county, including beach raking, bollards, restrooms, landscaping, signage, as well as trash receptacles and waste removal.
Tokajer presented pictures of vendors advertising their services despite a prohibition on business signage and called for the county to enforce the regulation.
He also claimed that commerce along the causeway resulted in traffic congestion on the way to the island, as well as posed safety concerns since some vendors were not licensed and did not provide adequate training for activities such as watercraft rentals.
County Commissioner Tal Siddique, R-District 3, stated that the city of Bradenton establishes the ordinance, and the county enforces it. He recommended working with the mainland city toward a regulatory solution.
Tokajer said he had spoken with Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown about the matter and was told it would come up in the future.
Tokajer also called out commercial activity in the waters along the city’s shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico.
He said three vessel-bound vendors have been spotted cruising in waters near the shore, playing music, advertising services to beachgoers with loud megaphones, and selling ice cream and pizza from their boats.
Another vendor has been seen on PWC, selling rides on a banana boat under tow.
Tokajer said the vendors do not land on shore, where the city can regulate such activity, and instead call beachgoers out into the water to complete transactions.
He said the vendors disturb beachgoers and residents alike, as well as represent another safety concern since their transactions require people to come in proximity to vessels under power.
County Commissioner Mike Rahn, R-District 4, acknowledged that the unlicensed commercial use of PWCs along the causeway and shoreline represents a public safety concern.
Tokajer said there was no regulation against such activity to be enforced at the moment, but asked the county to help provide teeth.
However, county natural resources director Charlie Hunsicker said county jurisdiction only went as far as the city’s own boundary, and the waters belong to the state.
Holmes Beach Commissioner Terry Schaefer said regulation of commerce in those waters could be an item included in the island cities’ legislative priorities moving forward.