HOLMES BEACH – City leaders are willing to consider a water taxi stop in Anna Maria Island’s largest municipality. But they say it will be up to Manatee County leaders to put forth a site plan change for their consideration.
The discussion began during commissioner comments at a June 25 city commission meeting following comments from Commissioner Greg Kerchner concerning a recent Manatee County Tourist Development Council meeting held at The Center of Anna Maria Island. During the TDC meeting, a proposal was reviewed from the city of Holmes Beach requesting funding for a multi-use path to enhance safety for pedestrians and cyclists along the Marina/Gulf Drive corridor. TDC members deviated in their conversation from the requested path to the Gulf Island Ferry service which currently operates from a dock in downtown Bradenton to the Anna Maria City Pier and the Bradenton Beach Pier. They voted to recommend the multi-use path funding to Manatee County commissioners, who make the final decision, on the condition that city leaders provide a space for the ferry to dock. During their discussion, city commissioners said it’s up to the county to approach them if they want a ferry dock in Holmes Beach.
Kerchner said he’d spoken with Bradenton Area Convention Center and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elliott Falcione about the ferry and suggested, in his personal opinion, that the county-owned Kingfish Boat Ramp at the entrance to the city on Manatee Avenue would be the best place in Holmes Beach for a ferry stop due to the large amount of parking and easy access to Island trolley stops and the beach.
Kerchner also said he’d spoken with Falcione about his concerns regarding the safety of the pontoon boats currently used for the service. When he lived in Baltimore, he said a similar style of ferry had been capsized, leading to the deaths of five people, including a child. With how fast storms blow up in the area, he said he feels the pontoon boats are not a reliable form of transportation to and from the Island on the Manatee River. Another point of concern is that the ferry service currently can only operate in fair weather, leading him and other commissioners to question how it can reliably be used by patrons and workers if they could get stuck out on the Island due to a storm without transportation back to downtown. Commissioners stated that in the event of ferry service cancellation, riders’ only means of transportation would be hiring a car ride service or waiting for a Manatee County Area Transit bus to take them back downtown.
At Kingfish, Kerchner said the county would be able to build the infrastructure to handle a larger boat than the pontoon boats instead of the limited access provided by the Waterline Marina in the center of the city.
While commissioners said they certainly are not opposed to considering site plan approval for a ferry stop in the city, they agreed that it would be up to county officials to bring those plans to them for consideration, not for them to present a plan to the county.
“If they’re going forward, and the city has made it very clear through numerous opportunities, we’re more than willing to accept and review a proposal. But it’s incumbent upon them, not us, to both locate and then to pursue a site plan for that location,” Commissioner Terry Schaefer said. He said he believes the best location would be Kingfish, if county leaders want to move forward, but it’s up to the county to bring the issue forward to the city commission “like anyone else who wants to build something in our city.”
City Attorney Erica Augello stated that she was aware the county had approached the owners of the marina at Waterline Marina Resort & Villas about hosting a ferry stop in that location. She noted that trials had already been conducted to see if the current pontoon boats were able to access and move around the marina. If that plan moves forward, she said it would likely come before the city commission for site plan approval in a quasi-judicial format. She encouraged commissioners to keep records of all of their communications regarding the water taxi service and to stay out of the discussion when possible.
“At this point, the city doesn’t have a dog in that fight,” Augello said.
