HOLMES BEACH – City officials are seeking tourist tax funding for enhancements to the city’s multimodal path and the creation of a new path. Public Works Superintendent/City Engineer Sage Kamiya addressed the Aug. 21 Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) meeting, citing the recent death of a bicyclist in the city and the death of a pedestrian who was struck by a truck earlier this year while crossing the street.
Kamiya told the TDC at the meeting at The Center of Anna Maria Island that a functional multimodal path running the length of the city was a matter of “life and death.”
Kamiya noted that there is a path for walkers and bicyclists that runs along a portion of Marina Drive, but it needs improvement. The proposed new path would begin around the 2800 block of Gulf Drive and continue almost the entire length of the city to where Gulf Drive and Marina Drive merge in the 8000 block. The proposal calls for the path to be separated from the road by a grassy buffer area that would further separate people using the path from the road, improving safety.
“Being here on the Island, you see a lot of people have to make use of the road because there aren’t a lot of good options for walking,” Kamiya said.
Connecting the path to the city’s 30 beach access points is also part of the plan, which would begin with the 65th and 66th Street access points near the center of the city. The city would also like to see educational signs along the path, allowing users to learn about wildlife they may encounter, such as shorebirds and sea turtles, as well as Island flora.
The budget estimate for the project totals $2,436,727, with half of the money going to the Gulf Drive path improvements ($1,293,238), and the remainder designated for Marina Drive path improvements, engineering design, crosswalks and educational signage.
Although the plan is ambitious, Kamiya told the TDC that it would be implemented in phases, with the first phase focusing on the city center area on both Gulf Drive and Marina Drive. The phase 1 estimate is $1,133,401 with $399,460 coming from the City of Holmes Beach and the remaining $733,948 being requested from tourist tax funds.
The TDC makes recommendations on the use of the funds to the Manatee County Commission.
Rather than approve or deny the funding recommendation, the TDC unanimously chose to have the matter brought to the next TDC meeting on Monday, Oct. 16, in hopes of getting answers to questions that multiple board members had, such as whether the path would eliminate public parking spots, which side of the street the path would be on, and defining a more specific timeline, among other concerns and questions.
