HOLMES BEACH – When voters go to the polls this November, they’ll be deciding more than just who will take three open seats on the city commission. They also will be deciding if the city completes a land swap with a local property owner.
Jonathan and Jessica Cooper appealed to city leaders over the summer to swap a 25-by-100-foot section of a 50-by-100-foot city right of way bisecting their property at 104 34th St. for a 2,911-square-foot trapezoid section of beachfront property they own. The couple’s attorney, Maggie Mooney, said that they would also be willing to pay $10,000 for dune restoration at a beach access point near their property or donate $10,000 to the city to be used for an environmental project of the city leaders’ choice.
While Mooney said the property is planned to be used exclusively for the use of the Coopers and their friends and family, if the land swap passes with voters, the couple also is willing to sign an agreement that the property will not be rented for a period of 10 years. The agreement would go with the land if the property is sold within that timeframe. Jonathan Cooper is the head coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
A 2019 charter amendment requires the land swap issue to go before voters rather than leaving it in the hands of Holmes Beach elected officials.
If it passes with voters, the land swap will increase the size of the buildable section of the Coopers’ lot. If the land swap doesn’t pass, the Coopers still have options to use the city right of way bisecting their property.
A recent issue at 127 50th St. in Holmes Beach illustrates what options owners with adjoining properties have concerning unimproved city rights of way.
In both instances, the abutting right of way is an unimproved road, meaning that it was originally planned to be an extension of an existing road but that road was never built. In speaking with The Sun, Mayor Judy Titsworth said in these instances that the right of way cannot be annexed into the property owner’s private property without being put before voters, but it can be used as an access point.
Titsworth said an abutting property owner can pave the unimproved road right of way, creating an access point to their property, which is what happened on 50th Street. She said the property owner has to pay to improve the right of way to city standards for a road and provide infiltration for stormwater. The resident’s property will still have to meet all setbacks, onsite parking requirements, stormwater infiltration and other building regulations on the private property, not on the right of way.
For the Cooper property, Titsworth said they could construct their home with the garage facing the beach, where the right of way in question is located, and use the entire right of way to access their driveway and garage even if the land swap isn’t approved by voters.
What Titsworth said abutting property owners can’t do is to use the right of way as a driveway, parking area, build on it or use it as an extension of their property, such as putting out chairs, a tiki bar or storage shed on the right of way. For any of those uses, the property would have to be annexed into the private property by receiving voters’ blessing at the polls.
If the Cooper land deal passes with voters during the Nov. 2 election, it will go back before city commissioners to be ratified by ordinance.
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