BRADENTON BEACH – A new look may be coming to the roundabout at Bridge Street and along Gulf Drive.
Mayor John Chappie said at a June 5 city commission meeting that the Washingtonian palms there have become too expensive to trim due to their height and he is exploring options to remove and replace them.
“In talking with Chief (John) Cosby with regards to the location of the Washingtonians, it’s becoming very expensive to trim these a couple times a year,” Chappie said. “It would be nice to get rid of them instead of spending the money we have to spend to trim them.”
The discussion also included some palm trees on Cortez Road.
“A lot of the cost comes in terms of traffic because I’ve got to put two officers out there and it takes up to a week usually to trim them and we’re spending between $6,000 and $8,000 a year to trim those trees,” Cosby said.
Gulf Drive is a state road and is under the scope of influence of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), but Cosby said the city is responsible for the tree maintenance and would be liable for any damage caused by the trees to cars or pedestrians.
Chappie said he has had discussions with Darryl Richard, the FDOT Region One landscape architect, to ask if the agency would be agreeable to the removal of the trees and replacing them with approved palms.
In 2024, the city planted coconut palms in the roundabout and they had to be removed due to FDOT regulations that prohibited them as an unapproved tree species.
“I won’t make that mistake again,” Chappie said.
“One of the things FDOT is concerned about is clear trunk space, because of the location so cars can see,” Chappie said. “Believe it or not, those Washingtonians were small 30-40 years ago.”
Cosby recommended planting smaller trees to replace the 40-foot-tall and higher Washingtonians that could be trimmed by city public works employees and would not necessitate road closure.
“I would like them to be standing on a ladder with a pole saw, and then you can reach them,” Cosby said. “So, 20 to 30 feet would be perfect. I’d like to be able to go trim them from the sidewalk, so I don’t have to shut the road down. It’s next to impossible to shut that road down for maintenance of trees.”
Cosby said two of the Washingtonians were lost in the hurricanes and city crews cut those out.
“It’s becoming so cumbersome,” Cosby said. “We used to rent the lift and by the time we were said and done we were $8,000. That’s just not worth it. You don’t see anything. You have to look way up to see so if you are driving by and you’re trying to promote the aesthetics of the area, there’s nothing to see.”
Chappie said some of the suggested species of palms would be sabal palms, thatched palms and cabbage palms.
“They’re not 40 feet tall and that’s where the cost is, you can’t trim them unless you’re blocking off the street,” he said.
With regard to the palms that are along the Cortez Bridge, Chappie noted that 1% of the cost of the new bridge has to be spent on landscaping.
“If the commission is OK with the removal, we’ll put it on the agenda for the next CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) meeting,” Chappie said.
“I think it’s a good idea to remove them and reevaluate what to plant with something that we can keep in house and manage ourselves,” Commissioner Deborah Scaccianoce said. “It makes more sense financially.”
Commissioner Jan Vosburgh said she is in favor of doing things as maintenance-free as possible.
“You don’t have to have the same species, you can do a mixture,” City Attorney Ricinda Perry said. “I think the issue is, chief and I were talking, we have the contractor ready to go but rather than have the expense of the trimming, we’d like to take money for the removal.”
Cosby asked the commission to put out a request for proposal to have a professional horticulturist or landscape planner make recommendations about which trees to plant.
“We also need to include irrigation. Nothing is going to grow properly without that, and we have a truck, we can water, but with the amount of traffic that’s on Bridge Street we’re blocking the road to water,” Cosby said.
He said there are already two water meters on Bridge Street.
“We just have to extend the line out and run it,” Cosby said. “Some of that will have to be dug up and it would be a good time to talk about redoing, or getting rid of those brick crosswalks. All the ribbon curb that holds them in place is shot. We could probably combine this into one project and really do a very good rejuvenation of that area. And maybe add a little color.”
Perry said CRA approval is necessary to use CRA funds for the new palms.
Commissioners unanimously came to a consensus to have Cosby obtain a cost for the tree removal and bring it back for approval at the first meeting in July.
“I would definitely like to get them gone before hurricane season,” Cosby said.
