A possible second ordinance on parking circulating on island 

Alternate version shown by attorney at  Lee meeting

The Boca Grande Chamber of Commerce circulated a separate draft ordinance for parking on Gasparilla Island on Tuesday night, April 1 after it was brought up by attorney Michael R. Whitt during the Lee County Board of Commissioners meeting that morning. The document is undated. 

“What was on the agenda is not what was sent out at 5:17 p.m. last night by Commissioner Ruane’s office,” Whitt said during public comment, “and this latest draft is vastly different that the previous draft … Now, after hours, there’s another draft that’s pages longer.”

Whitt, an attorney for Hahn Loeser, came on behalf of Lighthouse United Methodist and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.

This new draft ordinance was obtained by Whitt last minute Monday night before the Tuesday meeting. The Chamber of Commerce received a copy of the ordinance, and distributed it to members after the County Commissioners meeting. 

The Beacon asked Commissioner Kevin Ruane’s office for a copy of the draft. His assistant referred the Beacon back to the original published agenda. 

The new version would further reduce public beach parking, and not allow public beach parking on 5th Street, which has around 80 spaces. The new version rules out all public beach parking on all spaces on the island, except for the Gasparilla Island State Park locations.

• There would be parking exceptions for animal rescue and scientific teams.

This new draft has some completely new specifics. The draft:

• Defines golf carts as vehicles. It also defines vehicles as any powered device including electric bicycles, scooters as vehicles, but does not include mopeds.
• Creates a number of new categories including house guest, hotel guest, island employee and tenant of historic non-conforming apartment. These new categories would have different letters. The A would be a decal or coded sticker, the B a placard for hotel guests, C a decal or coded sticker for employees and D a parking placard for each household.  Different permits would get different privileges.
• Allows angle parking where angled parking was in place before April 1, 2025, with a parking study.

Breaks the island into residential and non-residential zones. 

Read the parking issue in Boca Grande at BocaBeacon.com/parking