County Needs to Come to the Table with Real Solutions on Island Parking

It seems like, every few years, Manatee County’s great parking pissing match is reignited. More people move to the island from someplace else and want the bridges blown up as soon as they cross one. More people move to our mainland, eager to spend their leisure time in the sand and surf, and longtime locals just want things to go back to the way they remember them being. At the end of the day, local leaders must come together and decide on equitable solutions that respect the most reasonable expectations on all sides.

The beach is, by far, my favorite thing about living in Manatee County. I suspect that I am like many of you in that, if it were not here, I wouldn't be either. While a home on the island isn’t among the options available to a small-town newspaper columnist, I live in west Bradenton precisely because it affords me the chance to get out to the paradise that is Holmes Beach at least once or twice each week, which are usually the most serene moments I get to enjoy.

As such, I’ve always been a fierce defender of mainlanders whenever it comes to island access. I’ve argued numerous times against paid parking and toll bridges. I’ve countered the argument made by some islanders about the disproportionate ratio of property taxes paid vs. service dollars received by reminding them of the fact that federal beach funding means that people in Idaho who will never see the Gulf of Mexico still share the costs associated with defying mother nature so that beachfront homes can exist, and explained how the manner in which property insurance is underwritten results in mainlanders subsidizing those rates as well.

However, all anyone had to do to see that all of this was going to eventually come to a head was look at how many people are moving to Manatee County each year–many of whom are also doing so because of beach proximity–and then look at a map. That thin little stretch of barrier islands is never going to supply an endless increase in demand for access to them, especially on weekends during peak season and holidays.

Holmes Beach had been the only one of the three island cities to essentially offer unlimited, free public parking. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city, in collaboration with the county and other island municipalities, eliminated all beach access parking on streets and right-of-ways in an effort to enforce beach closures and the safer-at-home order enacted by Governor DeSantis. However, once the county determined it was safe to open the public beaches, Holmes Beach put an end to unlimited free public parking in response to residential complaints about traffic excessive congestion, trash, noise, public urination, and other nuisances.

The city says it now has 1,261 beach access parking spaces within a quarter-mile distance from the beach that are available to the public, while an additional 642 permit parking spaces are set aside for Holmes Beach residents and vacation homeowners to use for beach access. That still makes it number one among the three cities. To be honest, I haven't had much of a problem finding parking since, or at least any more of a problem than usual. In fact, I went to Holmes Beach last Sunday (Memorial Day weekend), arrived at around 9:30 a.m., and easily found a public space.

As a regular beachgoer, my rule of thumb has long been, if I don't leave my house by 9:30 a.m.–after which a 10-minute ride can easily turn into one that takes anywhere from 45-90 minutes–I just don't go to the beach. By 10:30-11:00 a.m., arrival traffic is usually nearing its peak. Some people are willing to suffer through the slow slog, I am not. In this way, the so-called PITA factor becomes the de facto regulator of demand, and I've always kind of felt like that was the most egalitarian way to let the market manage itself, so to speak.

However, like other kinds of markets, left unfettered, they tend to get abused. As I’ve said many times before, my sympathy for a little inconvenience suffered by those for whom the sand and sea are literally reshaped just so that they can have a palatial mansion on the sand is somewhat limited. But when the throngs of people coming to the beach from near and far continue to swell, the problems being reported seem predictable, to say the very least. Holmes Beach effectively saying, hey, we’re gonna put reasonable limits on parking just like pretty much every beach town in America (including the other two on the island) in order to meter demand, seems like a rational response to their reality.

The current tension began immediately after the new board was seated in November, when Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge went after the city, accusing it of threatening the county’s federal renourishment funding. During a work session on the very day he was sworn in, Van Ostenbridge, whose district includes Holmes Beach, said he would not support county participation in beach renourishment projects in Holmes Beach (the funding for which he said the city's policy was threatening) until on-street parking levels were returned to their pre-COVID numbers. It turned out that Van Ostenbridge had not fully understood either issue. You can read more about that here.

That feud seemed to die off until last weekend when there was a disagreement on whether citizens would be able to park at Anna Maria Elementary over the holiday weekend. Van Ostenbridge and County Administrator Scott Hopes said that an arrangement had been made with the school district to open it up with the county covering the post-weekend clean-up. Holmes Beach Chief of Police William Tokajer then announced that the school district had not officially greenlit such a plan and that citizens who parked there would be subject to a $75 ticket. Back and forth ensued and the facility was eventually made available.

During the commissioner comments portion of Thursday’s land use meeting, Van Ostenbridge brought the issue up again. Commissioners discussed numerous possibilities, most of which were punitive. Commissioner George Kruse suggested the board might consider making the county library in Holmes Beach available on weekends by eliminating Saturday hours or even eliminating trolley stops in Holmes Beach at all stops that did not contain public parking to dissuade beachgoers from parking in Bradenton Beach and then riding up to patron bars and restaurants in the neighboring city.

I spoke with Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth on Friday who explained that the county leases the library property from the city, the terms of which would inhibit such a policy. Titsworth expressed frustration in how little of an effort commissioners have made to partner with the city in coming up with viable solutions and said that while the city is eager to be a partner to the county, she remains bewildered as to why county officials have consistently made such statements and publicly discussed punitive strategies without first coming to the table to learn, share perspectives and inform opinions.

At the end of the day, the desire of Holmes Beach residents not to have impassable streets because of large vehicles hanging out from medians or suffer drunken tourists peeing on their lawns because there are not nearly enough public restroom facilities on county beaches seems reasonable. The county commissioners, and especially developer-funded board members like Van Ostenbridge, also need to take a good hard look at all of the ways they bend over backward to give developers additional mainland density and other entitlements that contribute to runaway beach access demand. This, like so many other quality-of-life issues in our community, is a direct result of unchecked runaway growth.

That said, the county’s desire to build an elevated parking garage–which it says the city is against–seems reasonable as well and should be a good place from which to launch a compromise. For a decade, the county has promoted mass transit as a potential answer, but offering people a chance to jump on a bus at 75th Street isn’t likely to find nearly enough takers, especially if those busses don’t get a dedicated lane, or some other way to make using them worth the many drawbacks.

For starters, look at what gets pulled out of the average car when it parks at the beach–chaise lounges, coolers, beach bags, etc. Now, imagine parking on the mainland, getting that stuff onto a bus, and then gathering it again when you disembark. Then imagine an unexpected thunderstorm hitting, which is about as common as tourists feeding gulls, and think what it would be like when a thousand or so people without cars are trying to get off the island during a torrential downpour.

Many readers have long argued that a third bridge connecting to Longboat Key would lessen the demand, at least for the Cortez bridge. However, every transportation expert I've spoken to regarding that option quickly dismisses it, explaining that environmental considerations and navigation channel locations make permitting a bridge anywhere in that area a nonstarter.

With around 10,000 people a year moving to Manatee County, a number that will be greatly exceeded if very current trends continue, both the problem of adequate parking and public nuisances are only going to become worse. Holmes Beach already gets around 30,000 visitors each weekend. Again, just look at the island on a map and consider how many more it might be able to absorb (spoiler alert: the answer is none). Absent some sort of abatement, paid parking and toll bridges–a regressive solution that unfairly burdens those who cannot afford other more expensive recreation options–will become the only methods capable of metering supply and demand. Perhaps only then would a free county-operated park and ride from the mainland be attractive enough for a sizable population to entertain.

Commissioners know that the public backlash to such policies would be fierce, to say the very least, which is precisely why they’re more inclined to take a punitive approach today, I suspect. But that’s not leadership, it’s just the bigger organization bullying the smaller one, instead of working toward equitable alternatives such as building additional restroom facilities (perhaps at 52nd and 36th streets) and following the county's own rules when it comes to mainland growth and development. Most importantly, a board marked by tremendous inexperience might consider the merits of having more intergovernmental dialog and less public posturing, especially when it's so often been driven by misinformation.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of ourweekly podcast. He is also the host ofPunk Rock Politixon YouTube. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County governmentsince 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Clickherefor his bio. His latest book, Burn Black Wall Street Burn, is availablehere.