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Tag: Holmes Beach golf cart

Commissioners reconsider golf cart restrictions

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – It looks like residents’ golf cart driving days aren’t numbered after all.

At the first reading of a new golf cart ordinance on April 12, commissioners made a few eleventh hour changes before approving the amended regulations with a unanimous vote. Most notable among those changes is the elimination of a sunset period for golf cart usage in the city.

Commissioner Carol Soustek started the discussion, stating that she’d spoken to several residents who were unhappy with the provision in the new ordinance that didn’t allow for a replacement vehicle to be purchased and put in use on city streets once a resident’s golf cart died.

“It’s very little that they’re asking for,” Soustek said.

Her fellow commissioners all agreed.

Under the new regulations, golf carts can only be operated in the city by residents. Another change made was to add a provision allowing annual renters and other long-term residents as well as homesteaded residents to the list of people allowed to drive a golf cart on city streets.

If the ordinance passes a second and final vote at an upcoming commission meeting, residents will have three months to get their golf carts registered with the Holmes Beach Police Department. Golf carts will be required to have a sticker identifying them as a registered vehicle with the city and must be driven by a licensed driver. To register the vehicle, the owner must show proof of primary residency in Holmes Beach, such as an annual lease agreement or property homestead paperwork.

An important distinction is that, while they may look alike, a golf cart and a low-speed vehicle are considered two different things under Florida law.

A low-speed vehicle is one that has to be registered with the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles and can travel at speeds greater than 21 mph. A golf cart does not have a license plate, nor can it be registered with the DMV. Golf carts travel at speeds lower than 21 mph.

Holmes Beach is the only Anna Maria Island city where golf carts can be legally driven on the road.

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City registration coming for golf cart owners

City registration coming for golf cart owners

City registration coming for golf cart owners

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – As commissioners are considering instituting new safety measures for golf carts and low-speed vehicles in the city, a new requirement to register golf carts with the city is also being talked about.

Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer brought up the subject during a speed limit discussion at a Feb. 8 commission meeting. Tokajer said that requiring golf carts to be registered through the city would ensure that the vehicles have the safety equipment required by the city and that they are being used solely by residents. A part of the proposed registration requirement would be that golf cart owners would have to be homesteaded residents of Holmes Beach, preventing the vehicles from being purchased by rental owners for the use of vacationers.

The difference between a golf cart and a low-speed vehicle, or LSV, is that a golf cart travels at a slower speed than an LSV and is not required to be registered with the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles. Holmes Beach is the only Anna Maria Island city where golf carts are allowed to be driven, which creates a legal issue if they were to be used by vacationers who likely would not know that the vehicles couldn’t be driven legally in Anna Maria or Bradenton Beach, or where the city boundaries are located.

Holmes Beach allows the use of golf carts in the city primarily due to the Key Royale Golf Club being located within the city.

While Tokajer acknowledged that golf carts are generally used primarily by residents of the Island city, he said that there are some golf cart rental companies that conduct business online that could try to rent them in Holmes Beach. He also said that the requirement for proof of a homesteaded property would prevent others from providing them for rentals in the city.

For the registration, Tokajer suggested that owners have to register the golf carts with the city once per year and receive a sticker to put on the carts which would alert police that the operator is a Holmes Beach resident. He said it would also give officers the opportunity to check and make sure that the golf carts are equipped with required safety equipment including a windscreen and seat belts for each passenger.

Anyone found operating a golf cart – not an LSV – in the city without the sticker would be subject to being stopped and potentially fined by police.

The conversation is expected to continue at an upcoming city commission meeting.

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Letters to the Editor: Where did you go, “Island time?”

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Letter to the Editor, Opinion.

The Holmes Beach City Commission appears to want to “speed up” Island traffic by adopting regulations designed to effectively eliminate golf carts. These regulations are presented in the name of safety but really represent the frustration of those who want to drive faster on our tiny Island.

Where/why do we want/need to go faster? Aren’t we all here to see children/grandchildren/tourists enjoy the beauty of our fresh air paradise? There is no statistical evidence that seat belts save lives at 20 MPH. Child car seats in a golf cart is “helicopter policing;” parents can be relied upon to protect their children.

Golf carts don’t kill people on this Island, automobiles kill people here– look it up.

For whom do we want to speed up traffic – the contractor’s pickup trucks and their landscaper’s flotillas?

Why do we need any speed limit above 25 MPH in Holmes Beach?

Every errand in an (electric) golf cart is one less automobile emission.

When I purchased my AMI home 10 years ago, I was drawn by the ethic of “Island time,” no need to go faster. The industry of the Island is tourism. Do the tourists feel the need to go faster? Don’t they rent the golf carts and other non-traditional vehicles to enhance enjoyment for them and their families which ultimately leads them to come back each year?

The Holmes Beach Commission should eliminate regulations that are not fact-based nor in the interest of the AMI experience. Life is better on “Island time.”

Will Flinn and Michele Lentz

Holmes Beach