HOLMES BEACH – Anna Maria Island has exceeded its capacity for absorbing tourists, Island leaders told the Manatee County Tourist Development Council on Monday.
Judges said the reporter “reported well and completely on the impact of tourism on the local economy.”
The county’s success in marketing the Island worldwide as a tourist resort has started a vicious cycle fed by greed, Anna Maria Mayor SueLynn told the council – more visitors, who generate more resort tax, which the county spends on more marketing, attracting more visitors, who create a demand for rental units, causing residents to sell their homes and move off the Island, their homes replaced by rental units, whose owners demand more visitors.
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Local Government Reporting
2013
“The TDC’s success has destroyed the standard of living on the Island,” she said, blaming noisy, rude tourists, some who use yards as toilets, for driving off “neighbors who wanted to stay and live out their lives in Anna Maria.”
“It’s just too many people, she said. “Where is the agenda item that discusses and acknowledges the devastation of our quality of life? Where’s the balance?”
The Island has limited parking, no room to widen roads, and infrastructure that can’t stand up to booming tourism, she said, including the two piers in Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach advertised to tourists.
“Before long we will be Disney World,” TDC member and Holmes Beach Commissioner Jean Peelen said, adding that while she supports SueLynn’s views, she is unsure what the TDC can do, since state law limits how the council spends resort tax funds.
SueLynn renewed her request for the TDC to provide resort tax funds to help repair the Anna Maria city pier.
The county attorney’s office advised in June that the funds could be spent on piers. The county’s 5 percent resort tax raised $8.3 million in 2012.
“Why do I have to come to you and ask? Four of you live on the Island,” she said. “You know there is a problem.”
Bradenton Beach Mayor John Shaughnessy also asked the TDC to “seriously consider investing in the future of Bradenton Beach” by contributing to the Bridge Street Pier renovation. Damaged by storms, it is only half open, with an empty restaurant up for lease.
“We are at the tipping point,” TDC chair Carol Whitmore said, promising that the TDC will consider using resort taxes for piers in future budgets.
“We don’t want to wreck what we have,” she said. “It’s not that we’re not listening. We have to go through the process and we are.”
Statistics back observations
Tourism in Anna Maria was up 54 percent in June, according to the county’s most recent resort tax collections.
In the second quarter of 2013, tourism increased in Manatee County by 6.5 percent over last year to 141,600 visitors, according to Research Data Services (RDS). Occupancy rates were nearly 70 percent.
“I do understand the sensitivity of the very fragile Island communities,” said Walter Klages, of RDS. But until occupancy rates reach 100 percent, “There is still room in the inn,” he said.
In 2012, nearly 538,000 people visited Manatee County, according to RDS. Manatee County’s estimated census count in 2012 was 334,000.
Not so bad
“I don’t believe the sky is falling,” said Micheal Coleman, a partner in the redevelopment of Pine Avenue. “I believe we are at or near or slightly beyond capacity on the Island, but that’s a good thing.”
“We’re making progress,” he said, with Anna Maria and Holmes Beach attempting to limit the size of new construction and property managers working to address complaints.
Holmes Beach has instituted living area ratios (LAR) in its code and is finalizing a daytime noise ordinance to address tourist issues, Mayor Carmel Monti said.
“It’s not acceptable to say, ‘I’m here on vacation and I paid $10,000 and I’m disregarding the law,’ ” he said, adding that the city’s new police chief is committed to bringing visitors into compliance with local laws. “We can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and say we don’t want tourism.”
TDC member Ed Chiles, of the Chiles Group, said that day trippers, not tourists staying for two weeks, cause the problems, and once parking lots at public beaches are full, they should go elsewhere.
Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Elliott Falcione said that Island governments bear the responsibility for addressing issues with tourists.
“We are a small component of that,” he said.
“We’re doing what we’re asked to do,” said TDC member Barbara Rodocker, a Bradenton Beach hotelier who hires police on weekends to patrol her parking lots. “I would not like to see the Island turning into something uncontrollable, and we’re close to that right now.”
