ANNA MARIA – The Planning and Zoning Board is reviewing city regulations pertaining to fences located in street corner intersection visibility triangles and driveway intersection visibility triangles.
City Planner Ashley Austin and Building Department General Manager Dean Jones are assisting with these efforts.
VISIBILITY TRIANGLES
Section 90-2 of the city’s existing code of ordinances establishes street corner visibility triangles with the following language: “On a corner lot there shall be no parking or loading spaces, structure or planting, including trees, but not to include tree trunks where the tree branches are higher than 7 feet above the surrounding grade, which materially obstructs the vision of vehicular traffic within 20 feet of the two intersecting street right-of-way lines measured from the intersecting corner of the rights-of-way involved.”
Section 114-423 of the city code specifically addresses walls and fences, and the planning board recommends adding a text amendment to that section of city code that would allow solid fences up to 3 feet high, or 50% open, or transparent, fences 3-6 feet high, in visibility triangles. Transparent and partially transparent fences included rope and bollards, picket fences and split-rail fences.
Regarding street corner plantings, city code says plant masses or structures below 3 feet in height, and structures or tree foliage, not including tree trunks, 8 feet in height are not considered obstructions.
Board member Dusty Crane said the combination of vehicles parked within 20 feet of the intersection, foliage and fences at the corner of North Bay and Poinsettia make it difficult to pull onto North Bay.
“We’ve had an issue with that before. We’ve had to put up some bollards to try to mitigate that,” Jones said, noting that additional ropes and bollards could be installed where needed.
PASS-THROUGH LOTS
The board discussed fence heights on some of the ‘pass-through lots’ located along North Bay Boulevard. Pass-through lots, also known as through lots, are non-corner lots in which a property’s front and rear lot lines both abut streets.
Between Bayfront Park and the Rod & Reel Pier, 10 pass-through lots abut both North Bay Boulevard and North Shore Drive. Some of those homes have front entrances and front yards facing North Bay and others face North Shore. Austin said pass-through lots are not prevalent in Anna Maria, but there are some others elsewhere in the city.
Crane noted at least one pass-through lot fence along North Bay Boulevard appears to be 6 feet high and she asked if that’s allowed. Board member Doug Copeland noted that 6-foot-high fences are allowed in the back yards, but Austin said the height limit is 4 feet on both the front and back yards for pass-through lots. Austin said she would look into that matter.
DRIVEWAY INTERSECTIONS
The board reviewed the existing code that addresses driveway intersections and says, “At the intersection of a driveway with a street right-of-way line, there shall be no structure or planting, including trees, which materially obstructs the vision of vehicular traffic within 10 feet of the intersecting street right-of-way line and the driveway pavement edge measured from both intersecting corners of the right-of-way and driveway involved.
Similar to corner lot landscaping, the code also says, “For purposes of this section, planting masses or structures below 3 feet in height, and structures or tree foliage, not to include tree trunks, 8 feet in height are not considered obstructions.”
Jones, who recently returned as a city employee, acknowledged he hasn’t studied that section of the city code in a couple of years but he believes street-side parking is prohibited within 10 feet of a driveway, and that would be a code enforcement issue.
Copeland said visitors and residents need to be made aware of the 10-foot parking prohibition because most people who visit Anna Maria don’t know about it. Jones said there are already approximately 798 signs in Anna Maria and the city doesn’t want to significantly increase that number by erecting additional signs that address the 10-foot parking rule. Jones said a sign could be placed at the entrance to the city and Copeland suggested ropes and bollards as a potential alternative to more signs.
When the discussion ended, Austin said she would incorporate the board’s fence height and transparency suggestions in a proposed text amendment to be discussed at the board’s June 26 meeting.
