The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper


Vol. 16 No. 6 - December 9, 2015

headlines

Vacation rental lawsuit dismissed

ANNA MARIA – One of two lawsuits filed in objection to the vacation rental ordinance has been dismissed.

During an emergency City Commission meeting Tuesday morning, the attending commissioners voted 3-0 in favor of the motion to accept the settlement agreement brokered by City Attorney Becky Vose, the city’s mediation team that also included Mayor Dan Murphy and Commissioner Carol Carter, and the legal representatives for the lawsuit plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs in the suit originally filed on May 22 were Timothy and Kimberly Iafolla, Carol Roaldi, Salouh Florida LLC, Rysal Enterprises. Seven Emeralds LLC, Island Real Estate and Anna Maria Island Vacation Property Association.

The joint notice of dismissal without prejudice presented by Vose said, parties to this cause hereby agree to dismissal of this action, without prejudice to the filing of any future suit for damages, or challenging the city of Anna Maria Ordinance 15-807, or any future amendment thereto. This dismissal will also serve to dissolve the current temporary injunction. Further, the parties agree that each party shall bear their own attorney’s fees and costs incurred in connection with this lawsuit.”

Murphy, Carter, Commission Chair Doug Copeland and Commissioner Dale Woodland attended Tuesday’s meeting and Vose participated by phone. Commissioners Nancy Yetter and Chuck Webb were unable to attend the meeting that was scheduled on short notice Monday afternoon.

When presenting the settlement agreement and motion to dismiss to the commission, Vose said she thought it was an excellent settlement. She said the settlement reached with the plaintiff’s attorney, Kevin Hennessy, came just before another court hearing on the matter was tentatively scheduled to take place this week.

Vose said Hennessy asked the city to cover $10,000 in non-attorney fees the plaintiffs’ incurred, but the city did not agree to that proposal.

She also explained that the dismissal without prejudice meant any of the plaintiffs could file a similar lawsuit in the future if they so desired.

The settlement agreement and motion to dismiss also lifts the temporary injunction that had been in place since July, which means the city can begin the vacation rental registration process on Jan. 1. The ordinance will take effect on April 1.

With no further discussion, Woodland’s motion to approve the settlement agreement passed unanimously.

“Well this closes a chapter and I want to thank the mayor and Carol for all the work they did through the mediation; the commission for the work they did leading up to this; and especially attorney Vose for the hard work she put into this. Hopefully we can move on now; and good luck to our mayor and code enforcement because now your work begins,” Copeland said.

“Great work on behalf of attorney Vose and our mayor,” Carter added.

“I think this is a really good result,” said Vose.

After the meeting, Murphy said, “I’m glad that we’ve got this chapter behind us and we can now move on. Now we can put all the mechanics in place that we need to make a smooth transition into the enforcement of this ordinance.”

None of the plaintiffs were available for comment Tuesday morning

A second lawsuit filed on behalf of Pine Avenue Restoration LLC on July 28 remains open, but may also be headed for resolution soon, in part because the new vacation rental ordinance exempts the Residential/Office/Retail (ROR) zone district along Pine Avenue.

“I’m going to be contacting them and hopefully it (the lawsuit) will go away. We want to get beyond all the litigation,” Vose said after the meeting.

Moratorium request discarded
Carol Whitmore

joe hendricks | sun

At left, Commissioner Jake Spooner shares his
thoughts on the building moratorium
Mayor Bill Shearon hoped to revive.

 

BRADENTON BEACH – Mayor Bill Shearon tried to fulfill his campaign pledge to enact a building moratorium, but could not garner enough commission support to do so.

During the Thursday, Dec. 3, City Commission meeting, Shearon asked the commission to direct City Attorney Ricinda Perry to turn a previously tabled draft moratorium ordinance into a fully-developed moratorium ordinance to be presented for commission consideration in January.

The proposed moratorium called for a six-month suspension of building permits being issued for houses containing five or more bedrooms and duplexes containing three or more bedrooms per side, applicable to the After a lengthy commission discussion that included public input for and against the moratorium, Commissioner Jan Vosburgh made a motion in favor of Shearon’s agenda request. The motion was met with silence by Vice Mayor Ed Straight and Commissioners Ralph Cole and Jake Spooner. Shearon said the mayor cannot second a motion and declared the motion dead for lack of a second.

Moratorium proponent and Planning and Zoning Board member Frank Harrison then rose from his seat and held up the list he had presented to the commission which contained the signatures of more than 150 moratorium supporters.

“Excuse me, you just told 158 people that they don’t count,” he shouted at the commission.

When Shearon told Harrison he was out of order, Harrison yelled, “I sure am out of order.”

To the commission he then shouted “You’re definitely out of order.”

Shearon asked Harrison to leave, and he did.

Commission positions

The commission discussion began with Vosburgh trying to convince the other commission members to support the moratorium.

Cole said, “If we pass this moratorium, what is the plan? What are we trying to accomplish, and what are we going to do?”

“If we apply this moratorium, it just stops the building for six months,” Shearon said.

Cole asked if the intent was to make the proposed bedroom restrictions permanent during the commission’s forthcoming review of the revised land development code (LDC), which begins Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 1 p.m.

“We’d have six months to see if there’s other changes we want to do,” Shearon said.

Cole questioned the need to tell people how to utilize the floor space and height allowances granted in the existing building regulations.

He also questioned why the commission has not yet adopted a resolution that establishes the vacation rental license fees for the quality of life ordinance the previous commission adopted in early November.

Shearon said the commission needs to know the costs of implementation, inspections and enforcement before it can determine the licensing fees. Spooner suggested later that staff provide that information as soon as possible.

Straight said, “I’m not quite getting the time-out thing. We already passed the ordinance and now we’re going to have a moratorium to talk about what we’re already enforcing?”

Perry said the quality of life ordinance, which does include new vacation rental regulations, cannot be enforced until the fees are established.

Spooner said, “We already have this quality of life ordinance in place. We just need to get the fees done, and that addresses the behavioral problems everyone complains about. We just had a really busy weekend for Thanksgiving, and I’d like to know how many complaints our police department got? I heard there was a complaint, and it was actually two people talking on a porch.”

Spooner mentioned a large family that lives near him with eight people sharing the household, including two foreign exchange students.

“If the goal is to not have homes with more than four bedrooms, that’s not my ultimate goal,” he said.

“I live right across the street from a six-bedroom, four-bath, and I’ve never had any problems,” he added, noting that when there are large gatherings at the vacation rental he helps guests avoid parking tickets by suggesting additional parking places, including his own driveway.

“I don’t know why we’re peeking out our windows asking why kids are making noise in the pool. These are normal activities, and if there are problems the police can go there and say you guys need to cool it,” Spooner said, noting that those who visit the Island are “nice families” and not the monsters some make them out to be.

Making a final plea, Vosburgh said, “I’m all for property rights, but I also care about the few residents we have left in Bradenton Beach. What direction do we want the city to go in? Do we want just big houses? We have not done our job looking out for our residents and I’m almost thinking it’s too late. All those builders who can’t build in Anna Maria and Holmes Beach are going to come here and that’s all we’re going to have,” she concluded.

Port Dolphin’s demise celebrated

Local environmentalists and some local officials applaud Port Dolphin Energy’s decision to abandon its plans to build a liquid natural gas port 28 miles off Anna Maria Island and a 42-mile-long underwater pipeline to Port Manatee.

Norway-based parent company Höegh LNG confirmed last week that due to market changes, it will not build the proposed submersible port where tankers would have converted liquid natural gas (LNG) into vapor, pumped it into a pipeline landing at Port Manatee, and delivered it to energy suppliers.

“It’s good news,” said ManaSota-88 Director Glenn Compton, an early opponent of the project, which began more than a decade ago.

“We were concerned with the environmental impact of a new pipeline coming into the area,” as well as the visual impact of the port from Anna Maria Island’s beaches, he said.

The group had charged that a two-volume environmental impact statement completed by the U.S. Coast Guard underestimated Port Dolphin’s environmental impacts on wetlands, navigation and wildlife.

Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring, said she is glad that there will be no impact on the migration, feeding and mating of sea turtles and other marine life.

“If there are sources to get natural gas from other than the Gulf of Mexico, that’s better,” said Bradenton Beach Mayor Bill Shearon, adding that he would have had “a real concern” if the port had been visible from the beach.

Holmes Beach Mayor Bob Johnson said he also was happy not to have a port on the horizon.

Market changes

The Port Dolphin project was geared to importing natural gas, but in today’s market, the U.S. is an exporter, said Dave Sanford, deputy executive director for Port Manatee, where Port Dolphin had planned to land its underwater pipeline.

Port Dolphin’s annual $50,000 easement option on Port Manatee property expires at the end of this year, Sanford said, adding that the port is “not anticipating any negative consequences” from Port Dolphin’s decision not to move forward with the project.

New technology and sources of natural gas discovered since Port Dolphin’s proposal have led to an abundance of domestic natural gas, said a spokesman for Gulfstream Natural Gas, which operates a pipeline near Port Dolphin’s proposed path and opposed the project in comments filed with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Port Dolphin initiated its project after major hurricanes in 2004-05, when Florida was experiencing supply interruptions coming out of Gulf due to hurricane damage, said Jack Reid, of Seminole Electric, which commented favorably on Port Dolphin’s proposal during the permitting process.

Since then, “Reliability has been increased and we have found other ways to store gas in case there are interruptions,” he said, adding that much more onshore gas is available now from Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

The decision to abandon the project may cost Manatee County potential tax revenues, and may cost the state jobs, he said.

It will also cost Manatee County and the town of Longboat Key up to $5 million each, under an agreement among Port Dolphin, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that would have required Port Dolphin to pay Manatee County and Longboat Key up to $5.5 million each to fund removal of sand from the pipeline path to mitigate the loss of submerged beach renourishment sand reserves.

The county and the town each received $500,000 from Port Dolphin through the DEP fund, said Charlie Hunsicker, director of Manatee County’s Parks and Natural Resources Department. The funds were used by the county to obtain permits to remove sand from the proposed pipeline path, which the county can continue to renew, he said.

But since Port Dolphin never began construction, “the trigger was never reached” to receive the rest of the money and remove the sand, Longboat Key Town Manager Dave Bullock said.

Anna Maria plans holiday open house

The Sun and the AMI Historical Society are sponsoring the Anna Maria Holiday of Treasures Open House on Friday, Dec. 11 from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Stroll through the city enjoying lite bites and musical entertainment at participating businesses and organizations along Gulf Drive and Pine Avenue. Complimentary hayrides will be offered by CrossPointe Fellowship, 8605 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach.

The Roser Children's Choir will perform in the Historical Park, adjacent to the Historical Museum at 402 Pine Ave. at 6 p.m. Visitors can pick up a Bingo card at any participating location and have it marked.

When the card is filled, visitors are asked to vote for the best-decorated store and put the card in the holiday decked canisters which will be distributed through the city.

A lucky winner will be drawn that night for the grand prize a museum tote filled with hundreds of dollars worth of gift certificates, jewelry, beauty products, artwork and a large bottle of champagne.

Prizes include cash, a water bottle, totes, a book, numerous gift certificates, a bottle of Champagne, a picture frame, an art print, a hand-painted sign, beauty products, a T-shirt, a luggage tag and jewelry.

AMIHS| Submitted

AMI Historical Society totes are filled with prizes for the grand prize drawing.

Privateers parade to Santa

The Anna Maria Island Privateers will be heading toward Santa at their annual Christmas parade on Saturday, Dec. 12, starting at 10 a.m. at Bayfront Park, in Anna Maria.

The parade is open to all individuals or groups not supporting a political cause or candidate. Participation is free and you may decorate your vehicle for the season.

The parade will go the length of the Island so bring a ride; no walkers are allowed. It will end at Coquina Beach parking lot where Santa will be waiting to visit with kids and pass out gifts. Hot dogs, chips and soda will be provided for the kids free and adults for a contribution. To get an application, go to their Website at www.amiprivateers.org. For more information, contact John “Capt’n Red Beard” Swager at 941-920-3989.

SUN FILE PHOTO

Santa will be waiting at the end of the parade.

Winterfest this weekend

sun file photo

“Fierce Dragon” from the 2013 Winterfest
Young at Art show.

 

A variety of art will fill Holmes Beach City Hall field this weekend, Dec. 12 and 13, during the Anna Maria Island Art League’s 28th Annual Winterfest Festival of Fine Arts and Fine Crafts.

Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission and parking are free.

The annual juried art festival will feature more than 100 artists from the U.S. and Canada and their paintings, glass, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, fiber arts, photography, wood and more.

Also on tap is the Young at Art children’s exhibit, featuring works by Manatee County elementary and high school children, plus a children’s art activity area.

The family event features continuous live music on stage Saturday and a large food court offering a variety of food and beverages. Community organizations also will be on hand, including historical and environmental groups.

A gala raffle of more than 50 art works donated by festival exhibitors benefit the League’s Scholarship Fund, which provides classes to children and adults. The raffle gives everyone a chance to collect great art for a small donation. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5, and winners need not be present A variety of art will fill Holmes Beach City Hall field this weekend, Dec. 12 and 13, during the Anna Maria Island Art League’s 28th Annual Winterfest Festival of Fine Arts and Fine Crafts.

Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission and parking are free.

The annual juried art festival will feature more than 100 artists from the U.S. and Canada and their paintings, glass, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, fiber arts, photography, wood and more.

Also on tap is the Young at Art children’s exhibit, featuring works by Manatee County elementary and high school children, plus a children’s art activity area.

The family event features continuous live music on stage Saturday and a large food court offering a variety of food and beverages. Community organizations also will be on hand, including historical and environmental groups.

A gala raffle of more than 50 art works donated by festival exhibitors benefit the League’s Scholarship Fund, which provides classes to children and adults. The raffle gives everyone a chance to collect great art for a small donation. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5, and winners need not be present

Angel art graces The Studio

Pat Copeland | Sun

From left, Raven Skye McDonough and Jill Krasner
with their first collaboration, “The Guardian Angel of the Arts.”

ANNA MARIA – “A Collaboration of Angels and Other Works” is a unique partnership between two artists to enhance each other’s paintings to create a series of unique angels now on display at The Studio at Gulf and Pine.

On Friday, Dec. 11, the public is invited to meet the artists, Jill Krasner, of Sarasota, and Raven Skye McDonough, of Venice, at an opening reception from 4 to 8 p.m.

The pair said their collaboration happened unexpectedly when McDonough was helping Krasner organize her art studio.

“Jill showed me one of her watercolors, and I said, ‘There’s an angel in there,’ but she didn’t see it,” McDonough explained. “I took it to my studio and enhanced it with acrylics and paper collage, and it became our first piece, “The Guardian Angel of the Arts.”

“Every artist has a pile of reworkable art works that they don’t know what to do with,” added Krasner. “We traded piles and decided to make angels with them. It intrigued both of us.
“Our work is very different, but it works together, and there a distinct difference between our angels. Raven’s have an other worldly mystical look, while mine are cherubs.”

In addition to the angels, both will display new work. Krasner’s is a reflection of a recent workshop in Taos, N.M., which she said “represents the Southwest’s open spaces and geometrical architectural shapes,” while McDonough creates paper mosaic collages.

Also on display is the “Six Squared” show of works including Laura Reed’s cosmic energy in acrylic paint and collage; Lolly Owens’ abstract mixed media; Susan Hurwitch’s tropical series in mixed media; Dieter Lau’s bikers, a series of digital photos printed on aluminum mounted on wood; Cheryl Kinderknecht’s people, chairs and horses in mixed media; Janet Mishner’s girls in mixed media; and Krasner’s houses in mixed media.

These small works, mounted six across and six down can be purchased individually or as a whole.

The exhibits will be in place through Dec. 24. The Studio at Gulf and Pine is located at 10101 Gulf Drive, Anna Maria, Hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Prestigious medal found

Submitted

The Air and Space Campaign medal awarded by the United States Air Force, and shown in this photo, was recently found by Drift In patron Brian Quinn. Quinn found the medal in the parking area behind the Drift In and across the street from the Pines Trailer Park.

The medal has been turned over to Bradenton Beach Police Chief Sam Speciale and is being held at the Bradenton Beach Police Department headquarters, 403 Highland Ave. To inquire about the medal, stop by the police department Monday through Friday before 4 p.m. or call 941-778-6311.

Those attempting to claim the medal will be asked to provide some additional information regarding the medal to ensure that the claim of ownership is legitimate. Speciale also plans to contact the Air Force about the lost medal that is awarded to U.S. Air Force personnel who participated in or directly supported a significant U.S. military operation designated by the Air Force Chief of Staff.


AMISUN ~ The Island's Award-Winning Newspaper