HOLMES BEACH – Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge wants a new parking garage to be built on Manatee Beach’s sand parking lot, but the mayor of Holmes Beach so far appears unlikely to sign off on the project.
During a Manatee County Commission meeting last week and in a letter to Holmes Beach city officials, Van Ostenbridge said he would like to look at the possibility of building a parking garage on the county-owned property at the beach at the end of Manatee Avenue to provide more public parking for beachgoers. The garage would potentially be built in the primary parking area in front of the snack bar building at the entrance to the beach on Gulf Drive.
Van Ostenbridge also stated he wants Holmes Beach city leaders to dismantle their permit parking program for residents, opening up more street parking in residential areas for public use. He also has demanded that public beach parking be allowed at the Island Branch Library and Anna Maria Elementary School when those facilities are not otherwise in use. Providing public parking at the school requires permission from the School District of Manatee County and either a special permit or site plan amendment approval from the city of Holmes Beach. Public parking at the county library branch would require an amendment to the lease between the city and county for the land under the building.
If city leaders refuse, Van Ostenbridge said he’d consider refusing to provide beach renourishment funds for the Holmes Beach coastline. However, Manatee County commissioners have limited control over the disbursement of beach renourishment funds, which come primarily from federal and state resources – including the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection – and a portion of Manatee County Tourist Development Tax collections.
Though Van Ostenbridge has repeatedly said he would pull beach renourishment funds from the city to try to force Holmes Beach leaders’ hands regarding parking, it could be a double-edged sword for Manatee County, opponents say. Any reduction in beach renourishment could shrink the county’s beaches on Anna Maria Island due to rising sea levels and erosion, potentially reducing tourism to the area and damaging businesses throughout the county. Anna Maria Island generates the majority of tourism funds for Manatee County.
Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth said a parking garage is not an approved land use in the city and would potentially require the approval of an ordinance to allow the use or a special exception from city commissioners. The parking garage also would have to meet city requirements concerning maximum height (three stories), setbacks, stormwater retention and drainage and other building codes.
Titsworth has said while she’s happy to have conversations with county leaders about parking, she doesn’t feel that Holmes Beach and its residents should bear the majority of the responsibility for providing beach parking for the entire county and its visitors.
While the mayor has mentioned the possibility of the county building a parking garage in past talks concerning beach parking, she suggested building that garage off of 75th Street in Bradenton and using public transportation to get beachgoers to and from Manatee Beach.
Parking program scrutinized
Van Ostenbridge is among those who led the charge against the city of Holmes Beach regarding the public parking available for beachgoers in the Anna Maria Island city. The disagreement between county commissioners and Holmes Beach city leaders has gone on for months, stemming from a decision on the part of city leaders to enact a residential permit-only parking program on some residential streets located next to beach access points following a COVID-19-related shutdown of beach accesses in early 2020.
The permit parking program was planned for several years before becoming a reality and was designed to help lessen the negative impacts of large numbers of beachgoers in residential areas. Some issues that residents reported include people trespassing on their property, damaging property and landscaping, using exterior water hoses and pools without permission and leaving trash and other debris on lawns.
Despite Van Ostenbridge’s claims that city leaders have reduced the number of public parking spots by about 2,000 spaces, Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer, who helped implement the parking permit program, said that claim is false.
Tokajer has stated that before the COVID-19 parking closures, which have been lifted, the city had about 2,400 parking spaces, including those at beach access points, public parking areas and along the side of streets within a quarter of a mile of the beach. Now there are 1,261 parking spots that do not require a parking permit and 642 on-street parking spots that require a permit but become available to the public daily after 5 p.m. About 497 on-street parking spots were removed by city leaders in residential areas as a part of the parking changes.
Under an agreement with the county, the city provides many more spaces than the 500 or so that are required to receive beach renourishment funding, according to city officials.
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