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Horses gallop onto CME agenda

Horses gallop onto CME agenda

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Community News.

BRADENTON – The horses ridden in the waters off the side of the Palma Sola Scenic Highway made their way back onto the agenda for the Corridor Management Entity’s April meeting and were a point of contention among members and the people who gathered in person and online for the meeting.

The conversation that began as lively soon became acrimonious as people on both sides of the issue attempted to argue their point to either keep the horse riding in Palma Sola Bay going or remove the horses.

The co-chair of the committee, Craig Keys, interrupted the debate several times to remind all those gathered that the CME has no jurisdiction over whether horse riding can continue or be banned from the causeway. He added that the group is not even an advisory committee to any governing body.

The group’s primary purpose is beautification and maintenance of the side of the roadway along the designated scenic highway, currently from 75th Street in Bradenton west along Manatee Avenue to the intersection with East Bay Drive in Holmes Beach. There is an application being submitted by the group to the Florida Department of Transportation to extend the Palma Sola Scenic Highway to the end of Manatee Avenue at Manatee Beach and to the north from East Bay Drive to the Holmes Beach city border with Bradenton Beach.

Some members of the CME and the public made the argument that the horses are a danger to the public by blocking access to sidewalks and preventing multi-modal transportation through the area on the northeast side of the causeway. There also were environmental concerns such as horse excrement in the water, damage to seagrasses and damage to trees due to tying the horses to palm trees along the sidewalks.

Representatives from Beach Horses, C Ponies and other supporters of horse riding on the causeway said the horses do not adversely affect the environment. Carmen Hanson, of C Ponies, suggested horse-riding operators be allowed to install hitching posts for their personal use along the causeway at their own expense to alleviate the issue of damaging trees to which the horses are tied.

Co-chair Ingrid McClellan said one of the objectives of the CME is to maintain a pet-friendly recreational area along the causeway, including users with horses. She said that along the causeway, different types of users have different areas where they can enjoy their favorite recreational activities, from horse riding to biking, use of small watercraft and swimming, among others.

McClellan said the city of Bradenton has legal jurisdiction over the causeway beach and members of the Bradenton City Council had, in late 2020, instructed their attorney, Scott Rudacille, to investigate what their options are, if any, concerning the horse-riding operations on the causeway. As of press time for The Sun, an update had not been placed on the city’s council’s agenda for discussion.

Keys encouraged everyone with concerns about the horses to contact their elected officials, including city council members and county commissioners, to discuss their issues.

In other business, Darryl Richard said he would work with FDOT and Manatee County to address erosion along the causeway beaches before other members of the CME worked to restore bollards knocked over along the corridor by tidal waters and vehicles.

McClellan said it was back to the drawing board for Manatee County representatives trying to create a plan to revitalize Kingfish Boat Ramp in Holmes Beach. She said the group working on the project hit a roadblock with the landscaping plans and is starting the design work over from scratch before resubmitting plans for permits from FDOT. Richard, the CME’s representative from FDOT, said the plans are not yet ready for official permit review by the department.

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Bradenton City Council joins horse debate

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Manatee County.

BRADENTON – The horseback riding operations along the Palma Sola Causeway on Manatee Avenue West are again under scrutiny, this time by Bradenton City Council members.

During an Aug. 19 emergency meeting, council members voted unanimously to have City Attorney Scott Rudacille look into what the city can do to help mitigate issues caused by the riding operations. Issues discussed include the damage to seagrass, which could potentially lead to erosion and cause damage to the roadway, pollution from animal excrement and safety hazards from having so many horses on the side of the road in an area where families come to relax on the beach.

The same issues were discussed the week before in a Palma Sola Scenic Highway Corridor Management Entity meeting when two Palma Sola Bay residents, Robert Lombardo and Clif Gaus spoke. The two also appeared at the Bradenton City Council meeting.

The Sarasota County Water Atlas lists both the north and south sides of Palma Sola Bay as impaired according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s impaired waters rule. Impairments listed include fecal coliform and other bacteria. The latest water tests were done in late December 2019. Seagrass coverage for the area is listed as regressing from continuous to patchy in the north side area where the horses are ridden.

The issue of the horses was brought up in late 2019 before Manatee County commissioners who decided not to pursue regulation. Under Manatee County law, the horses also are labeled as a form of transportation, allowing them to be ridden on the causeway. Though the business is conducted in FDOT’s right of way, the city of Bradenton is charged with enforcement in the area.

While the horses aren’t a new fixture on the north side of the causeway, recent barriers to the practice in Pinellas County have led to more companies moving their riding businesses to the causeway. During the Palma Sola CME meeting, one member stated that 10 companies now advertise horseback riding on the causeway.

Maps from the Florida Department of Transportation show that the department lays claim to the right of way stretching 75 feet from the center of the roadway. A 2012 letter from Lance Grace with FDOT in response to concerns about the riding businesses states that while the department’s concern is for the “safety of the traveling public,” it allows for use of the right of way on the causeway for public recreation purposes and cannot block one recreation use while allowing others to continue. The letter suggests pursuing the issue with local governmental agencies and the Manatee County Department of Health, which monitors water quality in Palma Sola Bay.

View from the saddle

While some of the riding operators who have spoken to The Sun are not opposed to some type of regulation over the businesses using the causeway, they don’t want to see riding banned as it was in Pinellas County.

Carmen Herrmann Hanson of C Ponies, one of the companies offering horseback rides along the causeway, said that she feels the uptick in the number of horses on the roadside beaches is due partially to the COVID-19 pandemic. With people trying to find safe, outdoor activities, she said she feels more people are coming out to play on the causeway, from riding Jet Skis to riding horses or just relaxing on the sand.

As for her business, she said her employees know where the seagrass is and they stick to the harder, sandy areas where it’s not so soft that it could cause the horses to stumble. She suggested that the city or FDOT put signs in the area to specify that horses or small watercraft are not allowed to launch where the seagrass is, noting that the watercraft used on the south side of the causeway at low tide cause serious damage to seagrasses.

Hanson said she’s not opposed to some type of regulation for the riding businesses and even suggested that the horse operators and other companies doing business on the causeway contribute to a seagrass mitigation fund to help repair some of the damage to the area’s seagrass, though she added that the suggestion didn’t go anywhere with area leaders.

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Pinellas County bans water horses

County moves to regulate horses in bay

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Awards, Awards 2020, Outdoors, Second Place, Special Sections.

PALMA SOLA BAY – Taking a cue from Pinellas County, Manatee County commissioners have voted 7-0 to have the county attorney’s office investigate regulating horseback riding in sensitive waters in the county, including Palma Sola Bay.

Pinellas commissioners banned horses from aquatic preserves in that county last month, impacting several tourism businesses, including C Ponies, which also rents horses at Palma Sola Causeway.

They were persuaded by evidence, including aerial photos, that horses trample fragile seagrass in the aquatic preserve in Tampa Bay near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge where horses are rented, and that horse manure and urine in the water pose a risk to human health.

Second Place

In-Depth Reporting

Lucy Morgan Award

2020

Google Maps shows similar seagrass damage in Palma Sola Bay in Manatee County, and the bay has had poor water quality based on enterococcus bacteria from fecal contamination on the south side of the bay four times in the past five weeks, according to the Florida Department of Health’s Healthy Beaches Program.

Manatee County Commissioner Betsy Benac made the request on Thursday, Nov. 7.

“I want to know if it’s something we can do,” she said. “We’ve been told previously we can’t do that. Well, I don’t believe that.”

Commissioners had been advised that regulation was not possible based on ancient precedent protecting the use of horses as a mode of travel to convey people and goods, Manatee County Attorney Mitchell Palmer said, adding that “horses being used for recreational purposes in a sensitive body of water” is not the same thing.

“There’s little doubt in my mind that we can regulate horseback riding for purposes of water quality,” said Palmer, who suggested the “sensitive waters” language to avoid impacting horseback riding in rivers and lakes in east Manatee County and elsewhere.

“We have a copy of the Pinellas County ordinance,” Palmer said, explaining that his office had already begun looking into the issue prior to Thursday’s vote, and has requested the last five years’ worth of Palma Sola Bay water quality records from the Manatee County Health Department.

“I think it’s very important that this be done because the (sea)grass is being trampled,” Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said. “The grass helps to keep the water clear and is also food for the manatees.”

Palma Sola Bay has seagrass beds on both sides of the causeway as of last year’s survey, including in the northeastern section where most commercial horseback rentals occur, according to the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, which has expressed concern about the issue in recent months, along with Keep Manatee Beautiful, the Palma Sola Scenic Highway Corridor Management Entity, the Manatee Council of Governments and Sarasota Audubon.

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