Log in Subscribe

Perhaps This Isn't Really About Parking

Posted
Our local state legislators are poised to push a bill that would ostensibly assist the county in bypassing Holmes Beach officials to build a parking garage at the county-owned beach. However, they also mentioned the possibility of "consolidating" the governments of the island’s three cities. While the first part seemed odd given that it was "small government" Republicans seeking to once again preempt home rule, the second part may provide some insight as to what all of this noise is really about.

On Thursday, members of our local legislative delegation gave a preview of their intentions ahead of the upcoming annual legislative session. Rep. Will Robinson (R-Bradenton) shocked Anna Maria Island officials when he previewed legislation he intends to introduce–with unanimous support from the other members of the delegation–that would preempt a Holmes Beach ordinance that prevents the county from building a multi-story parking garage at the public beach.

As I’ve noted many times, neither a parking garage nor the return of the roughly 400 public spaces the city eliminated in the creation of its park-by-permit system would solve the problem of parking that is insufficient to meet demand. As rampant development rubber-stamped by the same Manatee County Commission that has been waging this war against Holmes Beach continues to allow the county population to swell year after year, the inland growth is creating far more demand for access to the beaches than the narrow strip of barrier island can possibly support. Period.

But while it seemed odd that state legislators would also want to pick a fight with island residents, that little part about consolidating the cities really caught my attention (my understanding is that while state legislation cannot dissolve a municipality, it can consolidate one or more existing ones). In a podcast interview last year, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth made the point that the county might not be all that interested in what Holmes Beach residents think because they have a vested interest in there being fewer "residents" and more vacationers filling high-end rentals–aka the McMansion looking "party houses" that have become more and more common in recent years.

You see, a shift from the smaller historic homes with year-round residents claiming homestead exemptions toward more and more gaudy rental properties that command hefty rates thanks to near endless demand from both the U.S. and abroad will continue to drive property values even higher with fewer and fewer of the properties enjoying the protections of a homestead exemption. By consolidating the three cities, developers and other special interests would only have to gain control of one government body to completely have their way with an island community that has successfully kept such forces' worst inclinations at bay for decades.

Face it, residents and vacationers have completely different expectations when it comes to quality of life. If you’re coming down from the frozen north to spend a week or so on an exotic sub-tropical island, even the worst traffic congestion is little more than a mild inconvenience. It is also one that northerners are far more used to having to endure as a price of admission, given how long beach towns up and down the northeastern seaboard have been gridlocked messes during the limited season in which the weather supports beachgoing. If you live and work within such gridlock, however, it is a very different story.

Furthermore, when I go to a place like Miami, NYC, or New Orleans for a few days, I don’t have any expectation that it is going to be quiet in the streets should I want to turn in early, and the people who live there know full well what all comes along with it. Indeed, most of them move to such places precisely because there is so much late-night action. But Anna Maria Island is a different animal altogether, a quaint little seaside community that has very deliberately remained sleepy and family-oriented since its inception.

As such, it is difficult not to see this as the first very big step toward driving locals away en masse and transforming the barrier island into one big cash cow of a resort town lined gulf-to-bay with more McMansions and the high-rise condos that will surely be permitted once those pesky small governments are out of the way.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County governmentsince 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University, where he earned a degree in Government. He later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Clickherefor his bio. Dennis' latest novel, Sacred Hearts, is availablehere.

Comments

No comments on this item

Only paid subscribers can comment
Please log in to comment by clicking here.