Manatee County citizens can take action by signing a petition to request that Gov. Ron DeSantis veto CS/HB 947 allowing Manatee County to permit a parking garage without meeting the Land Development Codes and Comprehensive Plans approved by the City of Holmes Beach.
Sign the petition here.
Thanks for helping!
Joe McClash
Bradenton
HOLMES BEACH – The Florida House of Representatives and Senate may have passed House Bill 947 on to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk, but that doesn’t mean that city leaders are done fighting against the construction of a parking garage at Manatee Beach.
During a May 9 commission meeting, Mayor Judy Titsworth and City Attorney Erica Augello said they’re exploring every available legal strategy to combat the parking garage bill which would see a three-story garage built over the current parking, concession stand, retail space and restroom facilities at the Manatee County-owned beach property. Estimated to cost $45 million to build over a minimum of two years, the garage is planned to hold 1,500-1,700 paid parking spaces, a new concession stand, retail space, restrooms and a bar. While the garage is under construction, parking at the beach, located at 4000 Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach, would be unavailable.
Currently, city leaders are asking residents and other Anna Maria Island stakeholders to write to DeSantis to encourage him to veto the bill. DeSantis can veto the bill, sign it into law, or take no action and allow it to become law. As of press time for The Sun, DeSantis had taken no action on the bill.
If the bill becomes law, Augello said she thinks there are a few ways for the city to fight it in court, however, she didn’t want to give away any available strategies during a public meeting.
Plans for a parking garage were first discussed between county and city elected officials as far back as 2021. Multi-level parking structures were never an approved land use in the city but are allowed by special exception, granted by city commissioners at a public hearing. When commissioners moved to pass an ordinance clarifying the land use restriction, Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge took the matter to county state legislative representatives, where the plan to construct the garage received unanimous support. The bill to bypass city regulations and allow the county to issue its own permits for the construction of a parking garage at the Manatee Beach property is sponsored by Rep. Will Robinson Jr., a Manatee County native.
TALLAHASSEE – With unanimous approval from 116 Florida state representatives, a local bill to build a parking garage at Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach has moved to the Florida Senate for consideration. The Senate is the final stop for the bill before going to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk for final approval or veto.
The bill, presented by Manatee County Rep. Will Robinson Jr., sped through three House committees before going to the floor for a vote on April 27, despite opposition from local elected officials and residents. After passing the House, it has now been referred to the Senate rules committee for consideration.
The bill, which received unanimous support from the Manatee County legislative delegation when it was first proposed in January, has been a controversial topic on Anna Maria Island. If it becomes law, it will allow Manatee County officials to construct a three-story parking garage at Manatee Beach without seeking approval or permits from Holmes Beach officials, where the beach is located. It also would supersede the city’s land development code and building ordinances, which do not allow parking garages without a special exception. Capping the structure at three stories does maintain the city’s current height limitations.
The parking garage is a pet project of Manatee County Commission Chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge and came as a result of tension between county and city elected officials stemming from streetside parking reductions in Holmes Beach.
To help protect the quality of life of city residents, Holmes Beach leaders enacted a long-planned residential permit parking-only zone on residential streets near beach accesses, with some streets closed to parking entirely due to the narrowness of the lanes. City leaders also recently adopted a four tires off the pavement parking rule to come in line with the parking regulations in Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria. These actions reduced available public parking by about 400 spaces with another 600 available until 5 p.m. daily for city residents only. Van Ostenbridge said the parking changes were a disservice to Manatee County residents and beachgoers.
The plan outlined by Van Ostenbridge would remove the 400-plus spaces currently available at the public beach along with the existing facilities including retail, restrooms and concessions, replacing them with a three-story garage with an estimated 1,500-1,700 parking spaces, new retail and concession areas and new restroom facilities.
The garage is estimated to cost around $45 million to build with construction taking at least two years to complete during which parking would not be available at the site.
To fund the ongoing maintenance of the garage, Van Ostenbridge said the parking spaces provided at the public beach would be paid parking. He estimated a fee of $2 per hour per vehicle. Titsworth said if that happens, the city will likely have to make street and public parking paid as well to avoid those areas being overrun by drivers looking for a free parking space.
In a final effort to get Robinson to pull the bill from consideration prior to the House floor vote, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth said she tried contacting him and sent him statistics showing parking remained available during spring break, along with a proposal to designate 220 parking spaces for Manatee County residents only. She said Robinson declined to consider any additional arguments or proposals until after the current legislative session ends.
How did we come to the point where some want to further destroy what used to be one of the most beautiful locations in Florida? Here is my view: Officials on Anna Maria Island responding to complaints by residents, taxpayers and voters complaining about not being able to park in front of their homes, dealing with trash, feces, urine, loud voices and general interference with what they thought was their right to peaceful existence where some have lived for 25 or 50 years. Some of these issues are driven by youthful exuberance and the use of alcohol by adults, and, in many cases, minors. When was the last time a beachgoer was cited for having alcohol on the beach? If one wanted evidence of alcohol use on the beach, simply stand outside Publix, Walgreens, and other establishments on the island selling alcoholic beverages. I get it… it is nice to have a drink on the beach, but this is not Fort Lauderdale; this is not Miami Beach. This is Anna Maria Island where one can relax and enjoy the natural surroundings of an island paradise in peace.
So after the town initiated some parking rules, some of the county’s children, sorry commissioners, demanded that parking restrictions be rescinded, and, if not, there would be consequences/repercussions. These commissioners should recognize vacationers do not vote – taxpayers/residents do. There is such a well of disappointment, anger and resolve towards these commissioners with bruised egos that there will be organized efforts to change the composition of the county commission, which I expect will be well-funded. It is also possible that because the $11 million boondoggle at the Kingfish Boat Ramp expansion was defeated, some commissioners did not get their way and they could not spend the $11 million of taxpayer’s money. So, let us spend $42 million to build the three-story monstrosity, close the café for two years, and force beachgoers to pay for parking with the end result of increasing traffic and further degrading the atmosphere of the entire island.
It was pointed out to state representatives and others that there is plenty of parking on the island, there could be accommodation offered by various organizations and the town could offer parking to county residents. It seems some commissioners want to show Anna Maria Island who is the boss.
Remember to vote in 2024.
Paul Reed Steberger
Holmes Beach
We applaud our Holmes Beach mayor and commissioners and their fellow civic leaders in Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach for defending longstanding, reasonable local “home rule,” certainly a tradition one would not expect to have attacked by Republican legislators like Rep. Robinson and Sen. Boyd.
But then who would expect that elected officials across the bridge in Bradenton would have such evident disregard and disrespect for the special “old Florida” vibe of Anna Maria Island? An expensive, intrusive parking garage? Really? On an island that, except for the high-rise condos on 53rd Street, has a unique character compared to Longboat Key and other beachfront communities?
Extensive, appealing, public beach access (with ample parking) is regularly underused at picturesque Coquina Beach. As several residents have wisely observed and our police chief’s recent survey of ample available parking spaces proved, we have “a traffic problem, not a parking problem.”
Yet the facts are unimportant. It’s all about political muscle and optics! As the mayor’s recent reasonable compromise proposal suggests, this is a political battle we are in danger of losing. One hopes that this very workable compromise did not come too late.
Holmes Beach has perhaps appeared to be insufficiently attentive to concerns raised about parking for daytime visitors. And to be fair, the tightening of parking regulations and removal of formerly available spaces pose an inconvenience for long-time homeowners like us – part-time or full-time residents for almost 25 years. Two wide, beach-block streets (67th and 77th streets) now suddenly forbid parking on both sides, though vehicles and pedestrians would still have ample, safe passage. The latter change is especially regrettable for those of us aged and/or requiring shelter from the sun, as 77th has a welcome beachfront shelter but few parking spaces remaining (even though golf carts have additional protected spaces).
Let’s hope that our state’s legislative representatives engage in genuine dialogue with local leaders, so we have a plan that responds appropriately to the need for parking for non-residents. But essential is a plan that recognizes and respects the primary responsibility of the Island’s elected officials to protect the quality of life for homeowners as well as visitors and the special character of Anna Maria Island.
Helen and Tom Flynn
Holmes Beach
According to current science, rising sea levels will go up more than a foot by 2050. That’s 27 years from now.
That means the beaches will be about gone. Gone!
There won’t be much reason to go to the beach, or to have a parking garage, or to have big bridges to nowhere.
Thanks,
Tom Matheson
TALLAHASSEE – Proponents of a parking garage facility at Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach had another good week in the state capital with a bill to allow the garage to be built passing its final committee meeting in the Florida House of Representatives.
The bill, sponsored by Manatee County Rep. Will Robinson Jr. and supported by Manatee County commissioners, passed the Local Administration, Federal Affairs and Special Districts Subcommittee, Regulatory Reform and Economic Development Subcommittee and State Affairs Committee, all with a unanimous favorable vote despite some Holmes Beach residents and city officials speaking out against the proposal.
Now the bill goes for a second reading and vote on the House floor before moving to the Senate, if approved, where it will undergo a similar committee approval process before making its way to the floor for a vote. If the parking garage bill passes votes in both the House and Senate, it will make its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis to either be rejected or signed into law on July 1.
Holmes Beach residents and local officials haven’t been silent when it comes to the parking garage bill. Mayor Judy Titsworth, along with members of city staff, made the journey to Tallahassee for the first of three committee hearings on March 15 to speak out against the bill. Members of the group Save AMI Cities sent letters to members of each committee in lieu of appearing in person. Police Chief Bill Tokajer sent letters opposing the parking garage to each committee. Commissioner Greg Kerchner appeared in person in the capitol on March 31 to speak at the final committee hearing.
While Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge is a vocal supporter of building the three-story parking garage, estimated to have 1,500-1,700 spaces – as opposed to the approximately 430 parking spaces currently available in the Manatee Beach parking lot – County Commissioner George Kruse said he’s approaching the proposition cautiously. Kruse said he wants to see numbers and how spending around $45 million to build the garage would benefit the county’s residents at large.
If approved, the garage construction is anticipated to begin in 2024 and take about two years to complete. The provisions of the bill would allow Manatee County to issue its own building permits for the project, bypassing approvals by Holmes Beach, where parking garages are only allowed by special exception.
If there is anything positive that comes from the recent attacks on home rule, it is how this threat has brought people from all over the world together in a fight to save Anna Maria Island and the three cities responsible for creating and retaining its character.
Anna Maria Island continues to receive recognition for being one of the best small coastal towns with its old Florida charm. I am proud of past policymakers and thank them for preserving our cities and creating a great destination for families to enjoy a day at the beach and the best place to live on Earth.
With numerous bills threatening our cities each year, our responsibility as engaged citizens and leaders has become much more essential. Detrimental decisions made today may not be able to be undone. Once paradise is lost, only a hurricane can wash away the many mistakes made by man. We have not listened to alternatives presented by transportation experts such as the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and FDOT. The ULI study suggested using shuttles or regional transit from the mainland to transport visitors to the Island. A 1,500- to 1,700-space parking garage doesn’t even come close to being a solution. The county and state’s unwillingness to take heed of studies paid for by county and state funding is unfathomable.
I truly appreciate all citizens for keeping up efforts in opposing big government and the continued attacks that these bills inflict on our cities.
“A hundred years after we are gone and forgotten, those who never heard of us will be living with the results of our actions.” – Oliver Wendell Homes
Judy Holmes Titsworth
Mayor, Holmes Beach
TALLAHASSEE – A bill in the Florida House of Representatives to circumvent Holmes Beach ordinances and build a three-story, 1,500-plus space parking garage has passed its first roadblock on the way to becoming a reality.
HB 947, proposed by Manatee County Rep. Will Robinson Jr., passed the Federal Affairs and Special Districts subcommittee with a unanimous vote on March 15 despite Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth, City Attorney Erica Augello and other city staff members making a trip to the Florida Capitol to speak in person during the meeting.
After the subcommittee meeting, Titsworth said she was disappointed but not surprised at the outcome.
“We knew ahead of time that they had the vote,” Titsworth said in a statement to The Sun. “We still went so we could at least and on record state our position. The staff did great. This is Florida government at its finest, unfortunately, and an exercise on what to expect when a city takes a stance on quality of life issues. We will continue to fight for home rule and to save our public beach.”
During a March 14 city commission meeting, Augello and Titsworth both spoke about the hearing. The required economic impact statement filed with the bill and signed by Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elliott Falcione states that the proposed garage with a minimum of 1,500 parking spaces is forecast to bring in $4,698,900 in the first fiscal year after its completion and $4,823,300 in the second fiscal year. The garage is expected to cost $45 million to build with $400,000 in annual maintenance afterwards. Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge said the garage’s parking spaces would have to be paid parking, around $2 per hour, to help pay for the construction and maintenance. The reasons for building the garage include providing additional public parking spaces for beachgoers and giving visitors more places to park to visit local businesses.
During the March 14 meeting, Titsworth said that she doesn’t think the ultimate goal of Manatee County commissioners, who first proposed the garage, is to provide beach parking for locals but to provide parking for businesses in Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria.
“It could turn into a bus depot to get other people to other parts of the Island,” Titsworth said of the garage. While Holmes Beach city leaders require businesses to absorb their own parking onsite or at an adjacent site, that isn’t the case in Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach, where businesses often have limited dedicated parking.
The bill becomes effective if it passes three committees in the House along with a floor vote and passes the same process in the Senate and is signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. If that happens, Manatee County commissioners can skip all city approvals and permits to issue their own permits for the construction of the parking garage on the county-owned property at Manatee Beach, located in the city at 4000 Gulf Drive. Van Ostenbridge previously said the new garage would include new bathroom, concession and retail facilities at the public beach. The garage is planned to cover the majority of the county-owned parcel, from the setback on the south next to West Coast Surf Shop to Gulf Drive. According to the bill, the garage is anticipated to not break the city’s three-story height restriction except for the elevator shaft going to the top floor of parking.
City leaders passed an ordinance in 2022 specifying that parking garages are not an allowable land use in the city. The ordinance was a clarification as parking garages historically have not been a use in Holmes Beach except by special exception.
Van Ostenbridge, who said he’d planned to propose a parking garage on the county-owned parcel before city commissioners passed the ordinance, said he felt like city leaders “kept moving the goalpost” so he broached the issue with the Manatee County legislative delegation, who voiced their support of the project during a January meeting. The proposed bill was born from there.
Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer said that he patrolled the city over a busy spring break weekend March 10-12 and found that parking wasn’t completely gone despite more than 35,000 cars coming into Holmes Beach each day.
On Saturday, Tokajer said the public beach parking lot was filled by 11 a.m. with 79 public parking spaces empty citywide at noon and 52 available at 3 p.m. On Sunday, he said the beach lot filled at 10:30 a.m. but there were still 88 spaces near the beach open at 11:50 a.m. He said those numbers didn’t include any of the available spaces in city lots or open church lots that welcome visitor parking.
Titsworth said that Robinson and Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse both took her up on an invitation to view the city’s available parking first-hand and that both were impressed with the amount of available parking. By the time Robinson toured the city, the bill had already been submitted for consideration. Kruse was noted during the March 15 hearing as lending his support to the proposed parking garage bill despite not appearing in person in Tallahassee.
Since the first approval, the parking garage bill has moved to the Regulatory Reform and Economic Development subcommittee. If it passes there, it goes to the State Affairs Committee before a House floor vote.
On March 1, I attended a Town Hall Meeting in Holmes Beach conducted by County Commissioner George Kruse. The main topic of the meeting was the traffic issues on Anna Maria Island and the proposed parking garage. Kruse listened politely, but he had obviously made up his mind that a parking garage should be built in Holmes Beach.
His decision was made with no input from any residents of Anna Maria Island, the people who will be most affected by the building of the parking garage. It’s disappointing that all the county commissioners, Rep. Robinson and Rep. Boyd did not take the time to meet with their Anna Maria Island constituents to gather additional input on a decision of this magnitude. What Kruse did not tell the audience is that the day before the Town Hall Meeting he had voted, along with the other County Commissioners, to endorse the parking garage. He has subsequently stated he is in favor of House Bill 947, legislation that would authorize a parking garage in county-managed public parks such as at Manatee Beach.
Kruse did admit that Anna Maria Island does not have a “visitor” problem, but rather has a traffic problem. His solution to reducing traffic on Anna Maria Island is to build a parking garage that Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge has stated could add 1,500 additional parking spaces. How does the building of a 1,500-stall parking garage reduce traffic coming onto Anna Maria Island? Won’t providing 1,500 additional parking spaces only add to the traffic problem? Why aren’t the county commissioners, Rep. Robinson and Rep. Boyd pursuing other options that would allow visitors to Anna Maria Island while reducing traffic as actively as they are pursuing a parking garage? Why aren’t they moving more quickly to find other solutions such as off-island parking facilities, shuttle services or other mass transit options to reduce the number of cars coming onto Anna Maria Island?
Jeff Dentz
Holmes Beach
HOLMES BEACH – There’s a bill in the Florida House of Representatives that would allow a three-story parking garage to cover the entire parking lot at the Manatee County-owned Manatee Beach.
If HB 947 passes both houses and is signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Island visitors and residents could be facing at least two years of construction, according to Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge.
The possibility of a parking garage first came up during a 2022 meeting between county and city leaders to discuss issues related to beachgoer parking in Anna Maria Island’s largest city. Later in the year, city leaders passed an ordinance banning parking garages in Holmes Beach, though a special exception for the use could still be sought with approval of the city commission. In a talk with The Sun last week, Van Ostenbridge said he’d planned to move forward with a proposal for a parking garage on the county-owned beach property but felt that city leaders “kept moving the goalpost.” So, he posed the issue to state legislators.
If the parking garage is approved at the state level, the proposed structure would be three stories tall, remaining within the city’s height restrictions – unlike previous garage plans of four stories – but still two stories higher than the existing concession stand. The exception to the height restriction would be the elevator shaft, which would extend above the top level of the garage to allow beachgoers to access rooftop parking.
The structure would only require building permits from the county, not from the city where it would be located, according to the bill.
Van Ostenbridge said the proposed structure would stretch across the entirety of the parcel – from the 10-foot required setback on the south side at West Coast Surf Shop to the northern boundary of Gulf Drive – and house between 1,500-1,700 parking spaces along with new restroom, concession and retail facilities. The cost of the project is estimated at $45 million.
Van Ostenbridge said construction would take about two years. During those two years, the currently existing 427 parking spaces at the public beach would be unavailable, so he said all of the residential streets on the Island would have to be opened to public parking to accommodate beachgoers. Currently, all three Island cities have limited public parking available on residential streets, requiring all four tires of a vehicle parked street-side to be off the pavement.
Once the garage is completed, Van Ostenbridge said that parkers would have to pay a nominal fee to use the garage spaces, such as $2 per hour, to help the county recoup the money spent to build the structure.
In a letter last week to county commissioners, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth reiterated her opposition to the proposed parking garage and urged state and county leaders to come to the Island to see the currently available parking and how it’s used by beachgoers.
“As mayor of one of the many cities in Manatee County, I once again welcome each of you on a tour,” Titsworth said in the letter. “I understand decisions have and will continue to be made by your board, many of which will have a profound effect on the quality of life for our citizens, guests and business owners. I hope that you will each be able to gain valuable knowledge as to why Holmes Beach is not only one of the most special places on earth to live but also an extremely popular tourist destination to which people come from all over the world each year to visit.
“For the past three years now, Holmes Beach citizens have found to be on our heels defending against false narratives by county leaders,” she wrote. “These stem from city leaders finally putting a limit on the number of secondary beach parking that could safely be accommodated in residential neighborhoods. I hope that you will accept my offer for a visit as this will not only provide you with the needed insights in making sound decisions but will allow you to see that as citizens of Manatee County, we have always been and continue to be part of the solution. The lack of available parking for county residents is not a result of parking limitations at the beaches. It is a result of growth in our county which is evidenced by the hours spent sitting in traffic trying to get to and from work on weekdays and to get to and from the beach on weekends and holidays.”
On March 3, Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer said that over the previous seven days, Holmes Beach had an average of 31,099 cars per day coming into the city. Titsworth said there are 4,783 parking spaces available in Holmes Beach for beachgoers, including those at vacation rental properties. Over 2,000 of those are public parking spaces.
Van Ostenbridge said that he doesn’t feel that Holmes Beach is at maximum capacity for beachgoers on average, with the exception being the highest points of tourist season, which is typically the most crowded in mid-March. Titsworth disagrees.
“There will never be enough,” she said in a Feb. 28 commission meeting. “There will never be enough parking spaces to accommodate everyone who wants to come to the beach.”
Anna Maria Island is changing and it has been for years. Our little Island has turned into a popular tourist destination and, while we love our visitors, especially the ones who come year after year and participate in the community, it’s hard not to feel like residents are getting pushed out in favor of beachgoers.
A bill is being considered at the state level that would have a parking garage built on the entire parking lot at Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach to overrule local regulations and allow Manatee County commissioners to issue their own building permit instead of going through a special exception request process with the Holmes Beach Commission.
The garage would hold 1,500-1,700 parking spaces after it’s built. What happens to all of the cars that are usually parked at the beach during the proposed two years of construction? Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge suggests opening all residential streets on AMI to beach parking for the duration of construction. If all residential streets are open to parking, and the four tires off the road street side parking regulations are lifted in the three Island cities, it has the very real potential to be a free-for-all where residents are severely outnumbered and have little to no chance of winning or preserving their quality of life.
Once the garage is built, it would be difficult to impossible to take back residential streets from parking and the garage will have a pay-per-hour system which would either have drivers circling residential streets looking for a free parking place or result in city leaders installing parking meters on the side of every road.
Imagine driving across the Anna Maria Island Bridge and instead of being greeted by a view of the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, you see a wall of concrete? Why not compromise and let the county build its parking garage on a different parcel, say the former Bank of America lot that’s only a block from the beach? The county would have to compromise by purchasing another piece of land and the city would have to compromise by allowing the garage to be built, but the existing parking at the public beach would remain open and there would be no need to open more residential streets to public parking for the beach without facilities, such as restrooms, concessions or adequate trash receptacles. If another garage is needed after the first one is built and open, put one up at the south end of the Manatee Beach parking lot. With 30,000-plus cars coming across the Anna Maria Island Bridge every day, it becomes a question of reasonableness and thinking about just how much a 7-mile island can take. We can only hope that our elected officials see reason before it’s too late.
I have to express my disappointment at the lack of respect and consideration the Holmes Beach commission gave to the two residents that got up to speak at Tuesday’s meeting.
The residents of our city have been working day and night to save our city from a potential takeover. It wasn’t as if there was a room full of people that wanted to speak. There were just two. Giving them 2 minutes to talk was an insult.
Residents have been writing letters and offering their expertise to form web pages, research documents, write letters, design yard signs and collect petitions.
If they think they can resolve the lack of communicating with legislators and initiating controversial plans such as the elimination of parking and garage bans on their own, I personally think they are not facing reality. Right now, they need the support of their residents more than ever.
I’m afraid they have just shown a lot of us that our opinions are not worth their time.
Very sad for us and for the future of our city.
Renee Ferguson
Holmes Beach
HOLMES BEACH – Just like the traffic headed to Anna Maria Island on holidays, an effort by Florida legislators to build a parking garage at Manatee Beach is inching forward.
House Bill 947 was filed on Monday by Rep. Will Robinson Jr., who represents Manatee County, including Anna Maria Island. If the bill passes, it will allow Manatee County commissioners to erect a three-story parking garage at the county-owned beach with no approvals from city leaders needed.
Previous plans mentioned by legislators were for a four-story garage, which would exceed the height restrictions in the city.
Though parking garages were never an allowable land use in Holmes Beach, city commissioners voted in 2022 to formally disallow multi-level parking facilities. At a meeting where that ordinance was discussed, Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge warned commissioners against the action, stating that he had planned to present an application to the city to build a parking garage on the property.
Mayor Judy Titsworth said that she’s disappointed by Robinson’s decision to file the bill and feels that it’s a blatant infringement of home rule. She said county leaders never submitted a formal application to the city for consideration of a parking garage and never put anything before city commissioners to consider allowing one through a special exception.
During a Feb. 14 commission meeting, Titsworth said that Robinson was scheduled to come to Holmes Beach later in the week to speak with city staff and tour the available public parking with her. On Monday, she said he decided to move the meeting to the end of the month.
In addition to the parking spaces already available in the city for beachgoers, Titsworth said she’d been speaking with two area churches about using their parking areas for the public outside of church service times. If the parking garage bill goes through at the state level, she said she’s unsure if those organizations will go through with providing extra parking since part of the reason for that potential solution was to avoid having a parking garage built at Manatee Beach.
She encouraged everyone to continue writing letters to state legislators and to write to each of the committees that HB 947 goes to for consideration.
While a parking garage is becoming more of a possibility, a state-funded study to look at the consolidation or elimination of the three Anna Maria Island cities is off the table – for now.
The state legislative delegation recently backed off its January proposal to pursue consolidating the cities at the state level if Island city leaders agreed to work together to consolidate some services at the city level.
Titsworth said she’s begun regular meetings with Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie and Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy to begin a discussion on how they can consolidate some services across the three cities.
While she said she’s unsure right now of where they can consolidate, she said she’s hopeful that by working together, the three can find solutions that will take away the threat of consolidation or elimination by state legislators.
She was also quick to reassure city staff that no positions were being eliminated, saying, “No one’s losing a job in the city.”
Titsworth said she’s having a bit of a difficult time trying to decide what could be consolidated.
“This is going to take quite a bit of time between the three cities to determine what can be consolidated,” she said. “We are committed to look and see what could be consolidated, listen to each other and work together.”
The mayoral meetings are a result of a recent meeting between state legislative representatives and the Island mayors concerning the consolidation of all three Island cities into one municipality or into unincorporated Manatee County.
Robinson began the year with a quest to launch a state-funded study to determine if the three cities should be eliminated or consolidated. The study, which was supported by the other members of the Manatee County state legislative delegation, has since been abandoned, at least temporarily, in favor of allowing the three Island governments to work some issues out among themselves.
“I can’t thank the citizens, visitors, residents, everyone enough,” Titsworth said of the outpouring of support from the public to fight against the consolidation study. “I couldn’t be more proud. You did an amazing job.”
ANNA MARIA – State legislators say they no longer intend to commission a state-funded feasibility study on the potential consolidation of the three Anna Maria Island cities and their respective city governments.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy made the announcement during this afternoon’s Anna Maria City Commission meeting.
Murphy returned to Anna Maria today after spending Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Tallahassee meeting privately with the five members of the Manatee County legislative delegation – Rep. Will Robinson Jr., Sen. Jim Boyd, Sen. Joe Gruters, Rep. Tommy Gregory and Rep. Mike Beltran.
On Jan. 12, Robinson announced that the delegation intended to seek during the upcoming 2023 legislative session a state-funded study on the feasibility of consolidating or dissolving the three Island cities. During that same meeting, the delegation also announced its intent to file state legislation that could potentially preempt the city of Holmes Beach’s land development code and city charter to allow Manatee County to build a multi-story parking garage on county property to provide more public parking for beachgoers and other visitors.
An outcry erupted from many elected officials and their constituents in the Island’s three cities, Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach, that state officials were attempting to destroy home rule, the ability of the Island cities to govern themselves. Concerns were voiced that consolidating or dissolving the Island cities would put them under Manatee County’s jurisdiction, eliminating local codes including building height restrictions and paving the way for a new set of rules for development.
Regarding the consolidation discussions he had with Robinson in Tallahassee, Murphy said during today’s meeting, “He has agreed to pull that from the table for this year. That won’t be an item this year. Sen. Boyd agreed.”
During a recent Anna Maria commission meeting, Murphy said that Robinson told him he sought the state-funded consolidation study because he’s received numerous complaints about taxes being too high on Anna Maria Island. The proposed consolidation study would have looked at whether consolidating some or all of the similar public services provided by each of the three Island cities might produce lower property taxes for the Island’s property owners.
However, Murphy said, “They would like the three Island mayors to have some formal discussions as to what can be consolidated because they are getting pressure from constituents about the tax rates here on the Island. What can we do from a service point of view? To that end, I asked the other two mayors to meet with me here at city hall this morning on my return from Tallahassee. We agreed that the three of us will work on what can be consolidated. What’s the low-hanging fruit that can quickly be captured? Long-term and short-term, what can we do here with the idea of saving taxpayers money?” he said.
Murphy said the three mayors will meet every two or three weeks to discuss what can be done regarding the consolidation of shared services. He said the mayors would likely address one potential point of consolidation at a time. He said the three mayors will also solicit input from their commissioners and city staff members and provide their commissions with regular updates.
“I feel comfortable that my fellow mayors will give it a fair and honest shot,” Murphy said.
When asked if he could provide any examples of services that might potentially be consolidated, Murphy said it was too early to do so. He said those details would be released when there’s a solid plan in place. Murphy said listing potential areas of consolidation now could cause city employees in all three cities to become apprehensive about the potential impacts consolidation might have on their jobs and livelihoods.
A few years ago, Murphy proposed consolidating the Anna Maria and Holmes Beach public works departments but those efforts proved unsuccessful.
“We need to have a serious effort on the consolidation. We’ve made efforts in the past and that went nowhere. This time it’s serious and we need to have a serious conversation. I have every confidence, after my meeting this morning with the other two mayors, that we’ll make progress with some form of consolidation,” Murphy said.
Murphy said if left to the state, the complete consolidation of the three Island cities is a possible scenario.
For his efforts, Murphy received a round of applause from the commissioners and others who attended today’s meeting.
Murphy said the Legislature’s continued concern about parking in Holmes Beach is not an issue that directly impacts the city of Anna Maria.
“That’s an issue between Holmes Beach and the state. This is not a county issue anymore,” he said.
Murphy referenced the streetside parking spaces the city of Holmes Beach eliminated during its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Approximately 650 parking spaces were eliminated in Holmes Beach. The county, through the state, wants some reprimands for those. They’re gone and they’d like to have them back. I think everybody recognizes that a parking garage is not a panacea. You could put up a dozen and you still wouldn’t have enough, but 650 spots are 650 spots. They were taken and is there some way to get that back?” Murphy said.
He added that the parking reductions in Holmes Beach have “created a lot of angst” with people on the mainland who feel their ability to visit the public beaches has been negatively impacted by those actions.
“Was it the right thing to do or not? At this point, the ship has sailed,” Murphy said of that past decision.
He said Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth has reached an agreement with the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation in Holmes Beach to provide some additional public parking spaces in the church parking lot. Murphy said he was asked to meet with the priest at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Holmes Beach, where Murphy is a member, and there’s a willingness there to also provide some additional public parking spaces.
Related coverage
Merger or dissolution could erase local city regulations
Proposed consolidation study concerns city officials
Island officials unite to preserve home rule
Mayor proposes negotiation, not war, with state legislators
AMI fights back against state representatives
Bradenton Beach Commission opposes state attacks on home rule
