BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners denied a temporary use application for a paid parking lot next to the Gulf Drive Café at an April 4 commission meeting.
The application for 900 Gulf Drive N. was submitted by applicant Joshua LaRose on behalf of property owner Wendy Kokolis.
Julian Botero represented the applicant at the commission meeting.
“We’re looking for paid beach parking, 27 spots on the south end of Gulf Drive Café at the white fenced-in lot,” Botero said. “This is a C-2 (commercial) zone, similar to everything else going on on the Island.”
Botero noted that the parking area would give visitors direct access to the beach.
“We got an application for a paid parking lot,” City Building Official Darin Cushing said. “This is again a case of where it got started before it was requested. We told them to halt construction, we had to have a permit.”
Mayor John Chappie cited a number of his concerns about the application.
The property is seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line, he said.
“Several state agencies need to chime in on this after-the-fact application. This is something we’re cracking down on,” Chappie said. “These are the problems you run into when you do something without asking and it creates problems with the city.”
The applicant requested that hours of operation for the parking lot be approved for 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and that it could be used as additional parking for the Gulf Drive Café.
“None of this jives. It makes me wonder what’s going on here,” Chappie said.
Chappie expressed concerns about the health, safety and welfare of the public in a high-density, high-traffic area.
“This is two blocks from the Cortez Road intersection, one of the busiest on the Island and the busiest in Bradenton Beach,” he said. “It’s high density with condos to the south. I’m concerned about that and the traffic.”
Chappie said there are no crosswalks in the immediate area, which has high pedestrian activity.
“I don’t see how the negative impact can be mitigated,” Chappie said, also taking issue with the proposed hours of operation and the potential for lights on the beach to disorient sea turtles during nesting season, which begins May 1.
Cushing said that the application for the parking lot would require approval from multiple agencies prior to the city considering approval.
“You’re under an FDEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) permit for an addition to the restaurant, this would require this as well,” he said. “There’s no way we can say yes. There’s the FDEP sea turtle division. SWFWMD (the Southwest Florida Water Management District) would also have to get involved. There are state agencies that have required permits before we can even take a look at this.”
PUBLIC OPPOSITION
During public comment, several people spoke in opposition to the application to which Botero replied, “We feel precedent has been set, such as the parking lot at the Beach House, which is the same dis tance from the Cortez Bridge intersection. We could change the time of operations,” he said. “City lights were attracting turtles. All the other lots that have been approved have been in residential areas. Ours is not.”
“When you’re dealing with a temporary use permit every application stands alone,” Chappie said, adding that not all applications for temporary parking have been approved, and those that were have come with stipulations to protect the health, safety and welfare of the community.
City Attorney Ricinda Perry said Bradenton Beach Police Chief John Cosby objected to the parking lot and said it would cause excessive vehicular traffic in the area.
“The chief specifically objected to turning on a southbound lane from a parking lot because it will likely back up traffic,” Perry said. “To travel in the northbound lane will require a vehicle to travel across three lanes of traffic and that is very dangerous, especially without traffic control devices.”
Perry added that without an FDOT study and without support of FDOT, the proposed parking would create a dangerous situation.
“People need to stop doing things before they come to the city, period, it’s not going to be tolerated. We have rules and regulations and we treat everybody the same according to our land development regulations and our comprehensive plan and it creates problems, and creates a tremendous cost to the taxpayers when things happen the way they should not happen,” Chappie said.
