PALMETTO – During his first day as a Manatee County commissioner, Kevin Van Ostenbridge warned that the city of Holmes Beach risks losing beach renourishment funding if they don’t restore recently-reduced public beach parking.
Tuesday morning, Van Ostenbridge, James Satcher and George Kruse were sworn in to four-year terms as the newest county commissioners. Returning Commissioner Vanessa Baugh was also sworn in. Joined by commissioners Reggie Bellamy, Misty Servia and Carol Whitmore, the reconfigured commission then engaged in a work session at the Bradenton Area Convention Center in Palmetto.
The afternoon session included discussion about beach parking on Anna Maria Island and the importance of maintaining an adequate number of beach access parking spaces to remain eligible for state and federal funding for future beach renourishment projects.
Earlier this year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Holmes Beach Commission eliminated parking spaces to reduce crowding in the city and on the beaches.
Van Ostenbridge, who represents Anna Maria Island and much of west Bradenton as the District 3 commissioner, said, “Mayor Titsworth and the Holmes Beach City Commission have jeopardized future beach renourishment projects in their city. I will not support county participation in beach renourishment projects in Holmes Beach until on-street parking levels are returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. I am drawing a line in the sand.”
Baugh, Satcher and Whitmore later expressed support for Van Ostenbridge’s position.
Tuesday’s discussion included a presentation by Deputy County Administrator John Osborne, with additional insight provided by Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker and county consultant Erica Carr-Betts.
A PowerPoint slide contained in Osborne’s presentation stated on-street neighborhood parking in Holmes Beach has been reduced by 45%.
Whitmore, a Holmes Beach resident and the city’s former mayor, said, “The city of Holmes Beach had 2,500 parking spaces before COVID. Today, they have maybe 500. They eliminated 2,000.”
Whitmore also mentioned a vacant bank property near Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach as the possible parking garage location.
Thatcher, the new District 1 commissioner, later repeated the parking figures cited by Whitmore.
While Tuesday’s work session was in progress, Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer provided The Sun with parking figures that differed from those being stated by county officials. Tokajer reconfirmed those figures by phone this morning.
With Tokajer’s support, the Holmes Beach commission permanently eliminated 497 on-street parking spaces, he said. As a result, there are currently 1,261 on-street parking spaces available in Holmes Beach that do not require a city-issued parking permit and 642 permit-only parking spaces that become available to the public after 5 p.m., seven days a week, according to Tokajer.
Regarding claims that 2,500 parking spaces were reduced to 500, Tokajer said, “That’s false. We started with 2,400 spots. The 500 number, which has been explained, is merely the number of spaces designated for beach renourishment. We have a lot more spots than that available. The numbers I provided are accurate as of today. Those are the same numbers we provided to Charlie Hunsicker, Cheri Coryea (county administrator) and Erica Betts.”
Renourishment funding
During the work session, Hunsicker said state and federal grants that help fund beach renourishment projects are based on the number of parking spaces located within a quarter-mile of the beach access points that extend the length of the Island.
“Everything happening between the water and that quarter-mile, that’s where we focus on maintaining a minimum number of parking spaces for each access point out to that beach. Beyond the quarter-mile, it doesn’t count, no matter how many spaces we have,” Hunsicker said.
“As cities change their allowances, if it’s happening outside of a quarter-mile it doesn’t affect our federal grant availability or our state grant availability. If we mess up inside that quarter-mile zone, it means millions of dollars of local cost. It doesn’t prevent you from having a beach renourishment program. It just increases your local share proportionate to the loss of public parking spaces,” Hunsicker explained.
Hunsicker said the per-quarter mile parking requirements are not offset by the large parking lots at Coquina Beach, Manatee Beach and elsewhere on the Island.
“The state and the federal governments believe access within a reasonable walking distance is important. So, it’s not maintaining the maximum total spaces along your length of shoreline, but a minimum of 50 spaces within a quarter-mile of each access point. If you have 40 spaces within a quarter-mile, you’re not going to meet the public access requirements to maintain full grant funding,” Hunsicker said.
Kruse, the new District 7 at-large commissioner, asked how many designated parking spaces for beach renourishment currently exist in Holmes Beach. Carr-Betts estimated that number to be approximately 460.
“We worked with the chief of police in Holmes Beach and we were right on the cusp of not having full eligibility. He worked with me and we were able to get full eligibility for that portion of the shoreline. With spaces being taken away, we have to be very careful at this point to make sure the spaces are adequately distributed along the shoreline,” Carr-Betts said.
“Literally, on a street-by-street basis. That’s why I’m very concerned,” Hunsicker added.
Hunsicker said there were instances when Tokajer was told a street with five proposed public parking spaces needed six.
“We used to have hundreds of spaces of leeway before the COVID actions happened, but now we’re tight, so we have to pay much more attention to it,” Hunsicker said.
Tuesday evening, Hunsicker provided The Sun with some additional information pertaining to beach renourishment parking requirements.
“In Holmes Beach, 479 is the bare minimum number of public parking spaces and equivalent public spaces provided by public trolley stops and bicycle racks, as provided by state statute to maintain 100% grant eligibility for state and federal renourishment,” Hunsicker said.
“Due to the opportunities for a small number of eligible spaces to change frequently, we ask each Island city to also provide a buffer of 10-20% of additional spaces within a quarter-mile of each public access point if at all possible. In our discussion with the Holmes Beach mayor and police chief, 500 spaces were offered, translating to 21 additional spaces. While this was short of the buffer desired, we accepted this offer as a good faith effort to provide buffer where needed,” Hunsicker said.
“The cities of Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria each have their own different and unique equivalent minimum parking space requirements covering their respective shoreline lengths of renourished beachfront as well,” he noted.
During the work session, Chief Assistant County Attorney Bill Clague also commented on the parking requirements.
“This is driven by the public purpose requirements of state and federal law. We’re supposed to use public dollars for public purposes. The tourist development tax statute we use for beach renourishment says it’s for beaches that have public access and public use. The reason it’s such a big issue for the county is that we take responsibility for the entire shoreline of Anna Maria Island. There’s a lot of private properties along that Island. It’s great that they have beaches, but it’s questionable whether we can use public dollars to renourish beaches in front of private homes. There has to be a public use there as well,” Clague said.
Van Ostenbridge opines
“I’ve spoken to many residents of Holmes Beach. A lot of them are embarrassed by the actions of their city. It’s extremely unwelcoming. It’s very disappointing,” Van Ostenbridge told the commission, noting his family’s roots on the Island date back to the 1930s.
Van Ostenbridge said many District 3 residents don’t live in Holmes Beach but work or own businesses there.
“I ran on a pro-business platform. I support those workers and those businesses, and I know this hurts them,” he said.
“The beach belongs to everyone. It’s the gem of the entire county. It belongs to every county taxpayer. If you want us to participate in renourishing that beach and caring for it and maintaining it, you have to provide them access to it,” Van Ostenbridge said.
“The state has minimum required levels of parking for the state and the feds to participate in beach renourishment funding. I would like this county to set much higher standards. I would like us to set pre-COVID levels of parking. If you’re looking for a number, 2,500 parking spaces is the minimum in Holmes Beach if they want us to participate in beach renourishment funding. I’m going to take a very aggressive approach with this,” Van Ostenbridge said.
“The vast majority of residents and business owners in Holmes Beach, they’re kind, welcoming people. They know they live in a destination city and they want people to come to their city. And those who are staunchly against this, you knew you moved to a destination city when you moved there. It is not a private Island. It is open to the public. It’s open to everyone in this community regardless of whether they live in Samoset or Palmetto or west Bradenton. The beach belongs to everyone,” Van Ostenbridge said.
He also alluded to the 5% tourist development tax collected on hotel, motel and vacation rental stays in Manatee County, most of which occurs on Anna Maria Island.
All three Island cities have utilized county commission-approved tourist development tax funds in recent years to help fund city projects, including the construction of the new Anna Maria City Pier.
Van Ostenbridge suggested the future use of tourist tax funds – spent on the advice of the Tourist Development Council (TDC) and the approval of the county commission – could be jeopardized by parking reductions.
“There are many other areas in this county that would love TDC funding – millions and millions of dollars,” he said.
Van Ostenbridge said he’d like to see Coryea enter into negotiations with some of the Island churches regarding the possible weekend and holiday use of their parking lots. He suggested reimbursing participating churches with tourist tax funds or some other funding source. He also asked Coryea to reach out to the school district regarding the possible weekend and holiday use of the parking spaces at Anna Maria Elementary School in Holmes Beach.
Additional commission comments
Whitmore, an at-large commissioner who lives in District 3, thanked Van Ostenbridge for his comments about the Holmes Beach parking reductions.
“I am so happy that you’ve done what you’re doing. I don’t have it in me to be as direct as you, but you’re my commissioner and I’m happy that somebody in the leadership of Manatee County that represents that district has actually said it publicly,” Whitmore said.
She suggested Van Ostenbridge meet with Tokajer and Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth.
“I know Judy. She’s a very good person,” Van Ostenbridge said. “We disagree politically on this issue.”
“I don’t feel like we picked a fight,” Satcher said. “I feel this issue should not be put upon us, but it has, so I’m looking at other options to solve the problem. The one that I can see is to build a parking deck within that quarter-mile if we can get it.”
That prompted Van Ostenbridge to say, “Mr. Satcher, I would just caution you on moving too quickly on a parking garage. That would be detrimental to the character of the Island.”
Regarding the Holmes Beach parking reductions, Baugh said, “I totally agree with Commissioner Van Ostenbridge. I feel like it’s gotten out of hand in Holmes Beach. I think they have forgotten that we all work together as a team.”
Baugh said she, too, would like to see more communication between the county and the Holmes Beach mayor and police chief.
“We need to get back to the way things were. If not, they’re going to look real funny if their beaches don’t continue to be renourished. I don’t know if they realize that or not, but they certainly can’t afford to pay for the dredging. Hopefully, they’ll remember that and try to meet us halfway,” Baugh said.
No formal votes were taken during the work session, but Van Ostenbridge offered his assessment of the commission majority’s position on potentially withholding future funds.
“I know we’re not counting heads here, but I think it’s pretty obvious that multiple commissioners are entertaining the idea. You might want to relay that message,” he said.
Holmes Beach responds
During the county work session, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth texted Whitmore. She later shared that text with The Sun.
In part, Titsworth’s text said, “Why are you allowing your commissioners to state untruths? You also should have invited me to attend. I was not aware of this work session.”
Speaking by phone after the work session ended, Titsworth said when she learned about the discussion taking place, she tuned in in time to hear Van Ostenbridge threatening to withhold future beach renourishment funds.
“No one called me to make sure they had the latest numbers. They didn’t make sure they had the correct information to give their commissioners. We offer more parking places than what’s required for beach renourishment. It’s surprising to me how they can speak about an issue and give strong opinions about an issue without trying to get educated on an issue,” Titsworth said.
“We had a meeting with Charlie. He was comfortable with the 500 spaces. We have it in our interlocal agreement. We adhere to the requirement for beach renourishment and will not jeopardize that,” Titsworth said.
“If he (Van Ostenbridge) wants to withhold funding, he should base it on us not upholding agreements that we have, and not just some fictional number,” she added.
Titsworth disputed the PowerPoint slide that said, “All on-street right of way and beach access parking in residential areas will close.”
“That’s not true. It looks like they were given bad information,” she said.
“Commissioner Van Ostenbridge has never reached out to me except for the one time he asked me if I’d support him if he ran for office. He has not called me since. If he has any concerns about anything, I have an open-door policy and he can see me any time.”
Tokajer also disputed the claim that 45% of Holmes Beach’s public parking spaces were eliminated.
“That is false, it has not been reduced by 45%. The parking numbers you have are the true and accurate numbers of today – which are the same numbers that were provided to Charlie Hunsicker in the meeting we had with Cheri Coryea and Erica Betts. It was not an adversarial meeting and every parking space they requested was given. The numbers given to them for beach renourishment were approved by them, as well as the state. We in no way would jeopardize the parking required for beach renourishment. It would have been nice for the commissioner, who is new, to have reached out to get the facts,” Tokajer said.
He also mentioned the figures cited by Whitmore and Satcher.
“We started with 2,400 spots, not 2,500. With the regular parking, the open parking and the permit parking, we have at least 1,903 spots. That shows a reduction of just under 500 spots total,” Tokajer said.
According to Tokajer’s statement, the city eliminated 21% of its pre-COVID parking spaces.
“That does not mean that in that quarter-mile area that we only have 500 spots. We have 1,261 spaces within that quarter-mile area. If the state and the feds were to come back and say for beach renourishment we need 600 spots designated, we already have them. They’re just not designated,” Tokajer said.
“We are not picking a fight. We are trying to weigh the needs of our residents and bring things back to some semblance of normalcy for them. The beach is for everyone, we’re in total agreement with that. But Holmes Beach’s residential areas should not be made into the county parking lot as if it was the UTC mall just because they want people to come to the beach. The county needs to come up with some other scenario where there is available parking without ruining the character and the residential areas of Holmes Beach,” Tokajer said.
