BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners discussed the current city ordinance prohibiting the digging of holes on public beaches at the June 5 meeting.
“This was brought up by (Manatee County Natural Resources Director) Charlie Hunsicker a couple of weeks ago at the coalition of Barrier Island Elected Officials meeting,” Mayor John Chappie said.
Holmes Beach has since passed a city ordinance prohibiting digging holes on beaches within the city’s limits.
“One of the things that was brought up to me is that it would be nice to have all of the three cities with a very similar if not the same ordinance,” Chappie said. “People don’t know when they’re crossing into different cities.”
The Holmes Beach ordinance prohibits removal of sand or shell and digging on the beach and states in part, “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 (permitted) construction project.”
Chappie said the Bradenton Beach prohibition does not apply to kids digging with small beach shovels but is intended to prevent injuries to people and entrapment of sea turtles caused by larger holes.
“This is dealing with having big garden shovels out there or as somebody phrased it, as ‘an overexcited father with his kids digging a huge hole’ and then they don’t fill them back in and somebody could trip and get hurt,” he said.
Chappie said he recently received an email from a man who wrote that his wife was in the hospital after falling into a large hole at the beach.
“She hurt herself pretty badly apparently, so I think it is needed,” he said.
City Attorney Ricinda Perry said the city already has a city ordinance on the books which prohibits digging on the beaches and beach accesses.
Perry referred to Sec. 46-36 – Removal of Natural Resources – under city ordinance number 08-404 which has been in place since 2008.
“No person in a park shall dig, remove or displace any beach sand, whether submerged or not, or any soil, rock, stone, tree, shrub or plant, down timber or other wood or material, or make any excavation by tool, equipment, blasting, or other means or agency,” that section states.
The ordinance states, “Park means a park, golf course, playground, beach, recreational center or any other area in the city, owned or used by the city, and devoted to active or passive recreation.”
“If you look at it, I don’t see the need to do anything more,” Perry said. “We have something on the books that prevents this from happening.”
The 2008 Bradenton Beach ordinance doesn’t limit or specify the depth of a hole that can be dug in the beach sand. The Manatee County, Holmes Beach and Anna Maria ordinances limit the depth of a hole dug in the beach sand to 1 foot.
Penalties and enforcement
“If a code enforcement officer from the county or somebody from the city is around at the right time and place, that’s when enforcement is going to happen, but our guys are not going to be out there looking for it,” Chappie said.
Commissioner Scott Bear asked if the city could assess fines for violations.
Perry said there is nothing in Holmes Beach’s proposed ordinance that provides for fines but said she and Bradenton Beach Police Chief John Cosby have been discussing city-wide penalties and modifications as they relate to code enforcement and traffic violations.
“If you don’t write it in the ordinance then it’s subject to difficulty applying a penalty for it,” Perry said. “The penalty that’s in the code that’s applicable is any person violating the provisions of this article shall be subject to expulsion from the park.”
She said the city has concurrent jurisdiction on the beaches with Manatee County.
“If they (Manatee County) have an ordinance with a fine associated with it, then we can have that particular fine be applicable,” Perry said.
A person convicted of violation of this code could receive a fine of not more than $500, she said.
“The way I see this, the city could issue a ticket like we do with turtle lighting issues and some other irreversible harm and add this to the ticket book for removal of sand, but it can’t exceed $500 per incident.”
Cosby said city fines and possible increases will be discussed at a Wednesday, June 25 city budget meeting.
Related coverage:
Anna Maria adopting ordinance prohibiting beach holes
Beach hole concerns deepen
