Beach Parking Should Remain Free

At a preliminary budget discussion last month, Manatee County Commissioners again broached the subject of charging for beach parking as a way to both build additional revenues and mitigate traffic/parking issues on the island. However, island mayors and at least one commissioner have wisely pushed back against the idea.

Manatee County Commissioner Stephen Jonsson, whose district 3 includes Anna Maria Island and part of Longboat Key, brought up the idea, noting that Pinellas County uses paid beach parking as a means to help support island amenities and that Sarasota County is currently considering it for Siesta Key. Commissioner Vanessa Baugh was enthusiastic in her support, especially for non-county residents.

At-large Commissioner Carol Whitmore, who has lived on the island for half a century and is a former Holmes Beach Mayor and council member, was adamant that beach parking should remain free for both residents and visitors. Whitmore has said that free parking is one of the things that sets AMI apart from other gulf coast beaches and that the revenue metered parking would bring would not be worth the hassle and backlash. Whitmore has vowed to vigorously fight any effort to enact paid parking on the island.

At a recent meeting of island mayors, former county commissioner and current Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie, whose former district Jonsson now represents, expressed surprise and concern that the county commission had suddenly begun discussing paid parking. His reservations were shared by Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth and Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy.

Betsy Benac, the county commission's other at-large commissioner, said that the county might be able to use a combination of paid parking and park & ride to get people out of their cars and alleviate congestion and parking issues on the island.

This is an issue near and dear to my heart. Like many Manatee County residents, I reside here primarily for its proximity to the coastal waters. I live a little less than six miles from the beach, and my son and I have always gone there with great frequency. Like most Manatee residents, I'll never be able to afford an island home and the luxury of walking from my back deck to the surf. Sometimes our drive can take 8 minutes, sometimes it can literally take an hour, so there's already a great deal of planning required and inconvenience suffered.

In general, I am heavily in favor of reducing vehicle use and increasing mass transportation. I hope I live to see the day when we are all using driverless-car ride-sharing services which will sharply reduce the quarter billion cars currently on U.S. roadways. Having effective and efficient mass transit, however, is a tricky proposition to say the least. The big challenge with people using mass transit for beach outings is our state's notoriously fickle weather.

You can already park in many places on the western end of the mainland and take a bus to one of the beaches. However, no one wants to be stuck on the island when heavy, unexpected rainfall occurs and all of those ride-sharers are trying to exit en masse as the skies open. I have yet to hear about a ride-sharing/mass transit plan that I can imagine would convince a meaningful number of beachgoers to ditch the convenience and security of having a vehicle on the island, should inclement weather upend their plans.

Yes, paying for parking would be likely to have some mitigating factor on beach demand, but it would seem to be a very regressive one, in which the people who'd have to choose between a day at the beach or the gas money to get there would go far less often or stop going altogether. But the public beaches and libraries have always been our great proletarian amenities that provide those with the least disposable income–many of whom service the quality of life of our more fortunate residents–modest but treasured quality-of-life features of their own, for free.

In a sense, the limited parking available already serves as a force to curb demand. For example, if we're not out of the house by 9:30 a.m. on a weekend morning, my son and I forgo the beach. Choosing between sleeping in on the weekend and being able to get to the beach without spending an unbearable amount of time slogging over the causeway and hovering for an open parking spot is a reality we've always accepted. Having to pay to park our car if we do manage to get ourselves over there in time to secure a spot, seems a bit much.

I understand that it is becoming common for local governments to look to pay-per-use models as a way to offset costs and raise additional funding, but there's no way to feel as though this is not paying for something twice, a wound that is further salted by all of the additional taxes we have recently taken on (two optional sales taxes, optional increased school property taxes, etc.).

The county has explored the idea of adding additional parking on the island by way of a multi-level parking facility, not unlike the one that Sarasota County recently added near St. Armands Circle to create 400 much-needed additional spaces on Lido Key. The island cities, however, have been clear that they don't want the height or visual nuisance of such a structure, which is also understandable, though that position should come with the acceptance of the challenges created by a lack of capacity, such as congestion and roadside parking.

The challenge with traffic and parking at our beaches is simple. A constantly growing population of county residents wants to enjoy them, while an ever increasing number of tourists–visitors it should be noted for whom we invest great sums of money through advertising to lure here–do the same. AMI is a very narrow, overdeveloped and otherwise limited island for which such challenges will likely always exist. Keep the parking free and focus the energy on more serious traffic challenges in the county's central corridor which have gone unaddressed for far too long.