Lee County passes island beach parking restrictions

Above, Chamber director Gary Cross addresses the board. Photo by Matt          

The Gasparilla Island parking ordinance passed unanimously at Tuesday’s Lee County Commissioners meeting with several amendments, including increasing a downtown two-hour parking limit to three hours.

Commissioners Kevin Ruane and Brian Hamman motioned and seconded the ordinance before hearing public comment and several requested amendments by Commissioner David Mulicka.

The amendments Mulicka presented were four-hour parking downtown, as opposed to the proposed two hours; fishing charter and dock parking access; restricting angled parking downtown to compact cars and golf carts; and increasing the fee for blocking residential driveways to $500.

The ordinance would not need to be readvertised for a future date if these amendments were passed, clarified County Manager Dave Harner.

“Nothing that was just discussed would be of a substantial nature to cause us to have to readvertise,” he said.

Commissioners agreed to consider Mulicka’s amendments after the public comment period, which lasted about two hours and included over 60 comment cards from residents (from both on and off island), Boca Grande business owners, non-profit organizations and captains.

After public comment, Ruane and Hamman agreed to modify their motion and second to permit general parking on the east side of Bayou Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets, as well as the east side of 11th Street next to the Innlet and the kayak launch to preserve fishing charter access.

During public comment, Sharon McKenzie, executive director of the Barrier Island Parks Society, requested an amendment to the definition of an employee to expand to volunteers of non-profits established in Boca Grande for the sake of parking passes. This was also accepted by Ruane and Hamman.

Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass suggested amending the two-hour parking limit in downtown to three or four hours; commissioners settled on a three-hour limit, although Mulicka admitted he would have rather it be four hours.

Additionally, commissioners agreed to increase the fee for blocking residential driveways to $500.

The issue of angled parking downtown was tabled for a later date to allow commissioners and staff to research the topic further.

Pendergrass asked Harner to brief the commission on how new parking regulations and restricted beach access would affect beach renourishment funding, a topic that has been discussed internally for the last month.

“The formula will change based on this, but it doesn’t mean that we’re not going to get state or federal dollars,” Harner said. “It just means that that formula would change. We have other avenues of how to pay for that, which are around the county which is an MSBU so there are other alternatives other than just taking it from the general fund, and we could bring that back at a later date.” (see story, page 1).

Mulicka expressed his concern about restricting beach access and said that he thought there could be repercussions with the governor.

“I’m definitely open-minded to an ordinance that’s breathing and certainly has the ability to tweak and make adjustments,” Ruane said.

Toward the end of the meeting, Ruane also attempted to appoint seven people to a new Boca Grande Parking Panel: Boo Gemes, Mark Spurgeon, Rick Ganong, Barbara McLaughlin, Louis Sarkes, Hugh Sullivan and Richard Weber.

“That’s a new board to actually work on this new ordinance going forward,” Ruane said. “Meet on a monthly basis, advertise it, have it open to the public so we have an opportunity to do any type of changes that need to take place, anything that we find out.”

Harner suggested that the commissioners direct staff to develop the committee within the administrative code framework, naming those seven members, to be brought back for formal board ratification. Ruane agreed, which will put the committee appointments before a commission vote at a later date.

Mulicka asked if Ruane was open to having multiple commissioners appoint members to a committee.

“I’m open to this coming back at another time, and we could have a discussion,” Ruane said. “I’m not narrow-minded.”