Gilchrist parking: It’s baaaa-ack

While Tuesday morning’s meeting of the Lee County Board of Commissioners was relatively quick and painless, with no big agenda items pertaining to Gasparilla Island, there was one public comment that is of great importance to the island and its future.

The comment was made by Mary O’Bannon, chairman of the Boca Grande Parking Committee. She attended the meeting with Vice-Chair Deb Martin and asked the Commissioners at the meeting for one thing – transparency – in an upcoming item that was to be presented to the Board at their November meeting by Commissioner Kevin Ruane, and to not leave the fate of anything in Boca Grande in the hands of one person.

The item to be presented concerned parking on Gilchrist Avenue and, potentially, the beach access streets, and how it could be impacted by damage from Hurricane Ian and, more recently, Tropical Storm Idalia.

Ruane’s rationale behind the slideshow presentation he asked the County Commissioners to view is that there is, in his words, “a greater urgency because of damage sustained to the beach area from 1st to 5th Street from Tropical Storm Idalia.”

Ruane also told County Commissioners in his request for the agenda item that he has had “many meetings with the Boca Grande Parking Panel, as well as the Sheriff’s Office, that provide great insight.”
However, according to the Boca Grande Parking Panel, the April meeting was the only one that Ruane attended and spoke to that group about anything, much less Gilchrist Avenue parking.

In his email to the other County Commissioners, Ruane said his slideshow will show conditions that have existed in the last two seasons on the island beach in that section, as well as erosion from Idalia.
If you look at the beach from 1st Street to 19th Street now, though, the sand has come back on its own, and there doesn’t appear to be any problems that could be construed as dangerous to beachgoers (see our story on the beaches below).

O’Bannon’s presentation was very brief, as she only had three minutes. Her comments, verbatim, were as follows:

It has been seven years, 10 months and 16 days ago former County Manager Roger Dejarlais, at the request of a commissioner, made the decision to improve and landscape the appearance of Gilchrist Avenue in Boca Grande after a six-plus-year upheaval of parking versus no parking. The panel consists of seven members, appointed by late Commissioner John Manning, and we represent a wide range of residents in our community. We govern ourselves by majority rule and with extensive input from the entire community.

We had our first and only meeting with commissioner Ruane in April of 2022, when I invited him to be a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Farish at The Gasparilla Inn and then also to meet with our parking panel to discuss the challenges that we face as our community grows.

It was brought to our attention this past week that Commissioner Ruane has a plan to present to you in November. It was a surprise to all of us on the parking panel, and a majority of the community were not aware of any of those recommendations.

In the past eight-and-a-half years we have worked successfully with Lee County Attorney Michael Jacobs, we’ve consulted with Randy Cerchie of Lee County DOT and we look forward to working with Mack Young of Lee County Parks & Rec. We have been very successful.

We would like to work with all Commissioners and staff. We are asking you to vote to return to the full involvement of the Board – we need everyone to buy into the changes that are proposed, not be surprised by the changes.

O’Bannon then read the final paragraph of the minutes of their meeting with Commissioner Ruane, in April of 2022.

All of the above must be reviewed by the Lee County Attorney’s Office and Lee County staff and then be presented to the Boca Grande Parking Panel in draft form. We will meet again and review the draft and what we’re comfortable with. We will then move toward implementation.

O’Bannon told Commissioners that this did not happen. She asked the Board to include everyone in making decisions for the Boca Grande Parking Panel moving forward.

This proposed agenda item for November by Commissioner Ruane brought about a search of his campaign contributions, which include a very large amount of them – at least 24 residents, and all on the same date of March 15, 2023. Of those 24, 22 live on Gilchrist Avenue or Banyan Street.