HOLMES BEACH – City leaders and residents are making last-minute attempts to get the attention of Gov. Ron DeSantis before he makes a decision on the future of a bill allowing a multi-level parking garage to be built at Manatee Beach contrary to city regulations.
After passing both the Florida House and Senate with unanimous votes of the members in attendance, the bill stalled for over a month before being presented to the governor for consideration. As of press time for The Sun, DeSantis had not signed or vetoed the bill.
The bill, HB 947, was presented to state legislators by Rep. Will Robinson Jr. during the Florida legislative session that ended in May. The bill came at the request of Manatee County commissioners, primarily commission Chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge, to build a three-story parking garage with parking on the roof at Manatee Beach. If built, Van Ostenbridge said the garage is planned to span the entirety of the county’s buildable land at the public beach and be able to house 1,500-1,700 vehicles with paid parking estimated at $2 per hour. To accommodate the garage, all of the existing facilities at the beach, including the concession stand, restrooms and retail, would be removed, along with trees at the property. The concession, restroom and retail facilities would be rebuilt as a part of the new garage. Construction on the project is estimated to cost $45 million and take at least two years to complete during which parking and facilities at the beach would be unavailable to the public.
Currently, there are more than 400 free parking spaces available to the public at Manatee Beach with hundreds more available in auxiliary on-street parking and at beach access points throughout the city.
Now that the bill has been officially presented to DeSantis, the governor has three options – sign it, veto it or ignore it. If he signs the bill, it becomes law upon gaining his signature. If he ignores it, the bill becomes law automatically on July 1. If he vetoes it, the bill goes back to the House and Senate for reconsideration during the next regular legislative session. If the bill passes both chambers with a three-quarters majority vote, it overrides the governor’s veto and the bill becomes law.
With the bill now up for consideration, concerned local residents, stakeholders and city leaders are appealing to DeSantis to veto the parking garage.
An effort among residents, called Paradise Lost, has sprung up to help bring awareness and mathematically-based reason to the parking garage discussion, led by Allan Levy of Perico Island. Levy, a professional analyst, studied the proposed project and says the construction of the garage would be catastrophic for traffic, causing backups to leave the beach of two hours or more during peak times. He also said that during these backups, traffic in and out of the garage would create a solid wall of vehicles that would be difficult to impossible for first responders, including fire trucks and ambulances to navigate through.
For more information on the effort, visit the group’s website.
There are also two petitions in circulation speaking out against the garage. One on Change.org had garnered over 6,300 signatures at press time for The Sun. Another petition on Manatee Citizens Taking Action has gained more than 2,800 signatures.
Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth also continues to speak out against the garage, taking to social media on June 15 to post a video directed to DeSantis asking him to veto the garage.
“This is an attack on home rule and a huge governmental overreach,” she said, adding that it would also potentially be the largest garage in the region. Titsworth also noted that the increase in traffic caused by the parking garage would be “a nightmare for first responders.”
During a June 13 meeting, she said that she walked the beach over the Memorial Day weekend, noting the crowds already gathered on the sand without adding another 1,000 parking spaces.
“It’s already umbrella-to-umbrella and shoulder-to-shoulder out there,” she said, adding that she’s not sure where on the sand the additional people would go to enjoy the beach.
Levy argues that congestion and beach capacity studies need to be done before a garage could be built. If the governor approves the bill, he said that he and others would be watching county leaders very closely to make sure that all required studies are completed before any permits are issued.
