MANATEE COUNTY – The battle between some Manatee County commissioners and city leadership in Holmes Beach continues to rage on after hopes of a cease-fire were diminished earlier in the week.
At the forefront of the disagreement are Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge and Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth, with backup from Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer. Van Ostenbridge has County Administrator Scott Hopes in his corner for reinforcement.
At the crux of the issues between the county and city are struggles over providing public parking on residential streets near beach access points. Van Ostenbridge is continuing his crusade to force the city’s leaders to open residential roads for beachgoer parking. Titsworth isn’t backing down from her commitment to balancing the needs of residents with the needs of visitors to the Island community.
Monday meeting
The two sides met on June 7 at Holmes Beach City Hall for a sit-down discussion about parking. During the meeting, both sides aired some of their grievances and agreed to work to find solutions.
Titsworth said she’s concerned about the lack of communication between the county and city and some of the inaccurate information being shared as fact at county commission meetings and with the media concerning parking in Holmes Beach.
The city has 1,261 non-permit public parking spaces, including some on residential streets and at beach ends in residential neighborhoods. There also are 642 permit-only spots open to residents of the Island city until 5 p.m. daily. All of these parking spaces are located a quarter-mile or less from the beach. When Holmes Beach leaders created the permit-only spaces on residential streets following COVID-19 closures in 2020, it was the implementation of a city plan that had been in the works for several years. It also eliminated 497 parking spaces citywide. The city needs 476 public parking spaces to qualify for beach renourishment funds.
Titsworth said the parking changes were implemented to help residents who were having a difficult time with beachgoers parking on residential streets. Some of the issues include noise, trespassing, trash and people using residential properties as restrooms and using outdoor hoses for showers, noting that no facilities are available outside of Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach. She said it also creates a safety problem as there are no lifeguards present outside of the public beach boundaries.
Sticking to her guns, Titsworth said the city would provide no additional public parking and that it’s up to the county to do so. She added that she’s provided Hopes with the name of a commercial property owner seeking to sell the former Bank of America location on Manatee Avenue, with the suggestion that the county could purchase the property and use it for beach parking. Currently, the city’s codes have no provision for a parking garage to be built.
Van Ostenbridge responded that if additional lifeguards are needed outside of the public beach, it would be up to the city to provide them.
To combat parking issues, he said he would contact Holmes Beach churches to see if they would be willing to provide public parking on their properties. It would require a change in city codes and two public hearings to allow for public parking at local churches for non-church functions.
During a June 8 city commission meeting, Father Matthew Grunfeld, of the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation, said his congregation has no interest in being put in the middle of the county and city fight over parking.
At Anna Maria Elementary School, Van Ostenbridge agreed the county would look into supplying a restroom trailer on the property and would contact the Florida Department of Transportation about providing flashing crosswalk signage for the crosswalk at Gulf Drive. Titsworth pointed out that vehicles stopping for pedestrians could cause vehicular traffic delays.
The county representatives also agreed to reach out to FDOT concerning the traffic patterns on stoplights leading down Manatee Avenue to the public beach. Holmes Beach Commissioner Jayne Christenson maintains that part of the problem on the Island isn’t lack of parking but an issue with the timing of the traffic light at Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive, something the city’s been trying to work with the county and FDOT to have remedied for months.
Tuesday tangle
The stalemate between the two sides was short-lived.
During a June 8 Manatee County Commission meeting, the city of Holmes Beach was under consideration for potential tourist development funding. While one smaller project was approved by commissioners, a second larger one was not. Van Ostenbridge took a moment before voting to say that city leaders need to consider the consequences of their actions before voting against providing funding to the city.
Mayor Judy Titsworth was not at the county meeting due to a prior obligation.
During a Holmes Beach commission meeting held the same day, commissioners and the mayor all expressed their displeasure with the decision.
Commissioners Terry Schaefer and Christenson both said they’d agreed to meet with Van Ostenbridge to listen to what he has to say but that they wouldn’t be attempting to broker a deal on the city’s behalf. Christenson also said she would be meeting with Hopes and County Commissioner Carol Whitmore.
“We finally poked the bear hard enough that they’re finally listening to us,” Christenson said. Prior to being a commissioner, Christenson worked with two committees to address parking and traffic in Holmes Beach. She noted that the first presentation of the parking committee concerning residential street parking took place in 2014.
Commissioner Jim Kihm said he feels the county should be more proactive in planning for future growth rather than putting pressure on the city to make up for a lack of planning. Even if city leaders added back the lost 497 spaces, with more than 10,000 people moving to Manatee County every year and an average of 30,000 vehicles coming on to the Island every weekend day looking for parking, adding a few hundred spaces won’t solve the problem, he said.
Kihm said city and county leaders need to have more dialogue and come up with real solutions and the financing to pay for them to address parking and traffic concerns.
Related coverage
County commissioners refuse Holmes Beach funding request
Parking rift between city, county widens over Memorial Day
Memorial Day weekend parking sparks drama in Holmes Beach
