ANNA MARIA – The city will soon have a “No Holes on Beach” ordinance in effect that prohibits using metal shovels and other gardening tools to dig holes in the beach sand.
On June 12, Anna Maria commissioners unanimously approved the first reading of Ordinance 25-945, a city ordinance that will support the hole digging regulations already contained in Manatee County Ordinance 23-121.
The city ordinance was drafted in response to a previous request made by Manatee County Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker. Hunsicker recently asked the three Island cities to adopt city ordinances that would regulate beach hole digging activities on city-owned and city-managed beaches not regulated by the county. The county-owned beaches include Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach, Coquina Beach, Cortez Beach and Leffis Key in Bradenton Beach and Beer Can Island (Greer Island) in Longboat Key. The county also manages and maintains the city-owned Bayfront Park in Anna Maria. When requesting the city ordinances, Hunsicker said large, unfilled beach holes present injury risks to beachgoers and first responders and endanger sea turtles and other wildlife.
Using language similar to the county ordinance, the Anna Maria ordinance says, “No person shall possess on or about any beach a metal shovel or comparable gardening tool of the type customarily sold in a hardware store (not a children’s toy) unless part of a construction project permitted under the Florida Building Code or similar law.”
The proposed ordinance drafted by City Attorney Becky Vose originally stated no hole shall be dug deeper than 2 feet below the surrounding grade. Commissioner Charlie Salem suggested changing the hole depth restriction to 1 foot to be consistent with the county ordinance and the similar Holmes Beach ordinance adopted earlier that week.
The revised Anna Maria ordinance now says, “No person shall dig a hole in the beach deeper than 1 foot below the surrounding grade unless part of a construction project permitted under the Florida Building Code or similar law.”
The city of Bradenton Beach has a 2008 ordinance in place that addresses in general terms the use of tools to excavate on a beach and Bradenton Beach commissioners are not revising that ordinance.
The Anna Maria ordinance authorizes code enforcement officers and law enforcement officers to enforce the hole digging prohibitions and violators will be subjected to a fine to be established by a separate city resolution.
“Each incident or separate occurrence of an act that violates this section shall be deemed a separate offense,” according to the ordinance.
Public input
Anna Maria resident and Planning and Zoning Board member Jeff Rodencal has lived on the Bean Point beachfront for almost 25 years and he’s seen many large holes dug in the sand during that time. He supports the city ordinance but noted as originally written it might restrict city personnel’s ability to fill an abandoned hole.
“You need equipment to fill the holes back in. I’ve seen holes 7-8 feet wide, 2 or 3 feet deep,” he said. “This ordinance seems to prevent that from happening.”
General Manager Dean Jones said the public works department usually uses a skid steer loader to fill in large beach holes and he suggested adding language to the ordinance that allows city personnel to do what’s necessary to return the sand to its natural state.
Participating by phone, Vose agreed with those suggestions.
Rodencal also said many beach areas used by the public are actually private property and those property owners shouldn’t be prohibited from planting trees and other landscaping on their beachfront property.
“A lot of the beach technically isn’t public and this document is aimed at public beaches,” Rodencal said. “The beach is really private land. It is my property. I would be hopeful that the city would also respect the homeowner’s rights to be able to garden in their backyard.”
He also mentioned the recent Build Back the Beach volunteer replanting project along the Bean Point shoreline, which Salem noted was a city-permitted endeavor.
In response to Rodencal and Jones’ comments, Vose added to the following language to the ordinance: “It shall not be considered to be a violation of this section for a homeowner, when planting plants in the private beach behind the homeowner’s home, to use a metal shovel or gardening tool so long as any hole that is dug is appropriately filled by the later of eight hours after the digging of the hole or sunset, whichever is earlier. It shall also not be considered a violation for a governmental representative to use any appropriate means to return sand to a hole to restore the beach to its natural state.”
City resident and North Shore Café co-owner Colleen Geller asked if the ordinance would prohibit kids from using plastic shovels and pails to dig small holes in the sand.
“It does not prohibit beach toys,” Mayor Mark Short said. “Sand in a bucket is not considered a garden tool, but if we see people walking out there with garden shovels and stuff they’re going to be stopped; and if we see them on the beach, the intent of this ordinance is to remove them from the beach, irrespective of whether or not there’s a hole there. This will hopefully prevent that from happening.”
“The folks that are going to be enforcing this know the difference between kids digging a hole and making a sandcastle and somebody digging and leaving a hole that’s a danger to other people and wildlife,” Salem added.
“I have seen actual bunkers out there. I’m confident the new ordinance would help curtail a lot of that,” Jones said.
Short said the city will update its beach access signs to include the shovel and gardening tool prohibitions and public awareness and education will be part of the ongoing enforcement efforts.
The city ordinance will be presented for second reading and final adoption on June 26.
Holmes Beach ordinance finalized
The city of Holmes Beach has a new ordinance in effect that prohibits using metal shovels to dig holes in the sand at city-owned and city-regulated beaches.
Unanimously adopted by Holmes Beach city commissioners on second and final reading on June 10, Ordinance 25-09 says, “No person shall possess on or about the sandy Gulf beach a metal shovel of the type customarily sold in a hardware store (not a children’s toy) unless part of a construction project permitted under the Florida Building Code or similar law.”
The city ordinance also says, “No person shall dig a hole in the sandy Gulf beach deeper than 1 foot below surrounding grade unless part of a construction project permitted under the Florida Building Code or similar law.” The commission adopted the city ordinance at the request of Manatee County Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker, who sought to expand the hole digging prohibitions already in effect on county-owned and county-regulated beaches.
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