HOLMES BEACH, Fla. (SNN TV) — Florida legislators representing Manatee County are considering, among other options, consolidating all three Anna Maria Island municipalities. Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth told SNN she thinks this all stemmed from a years-long debate about a parking garage.
“That was when the City of Holmes Beach finally put limits on what we could safely accommodate in our residential neighborhoods,” Titsworth said.
Starting in 2020, the city of Holmes Beach posted ‘No Parking’ signs on residential streets, reducing parking by about 1,100 spaces. Manatee County Commissioners argued the city of Holmes Beach needed to plan ahead due to the Suncoast’s surging population.
“They chose to close on-street parking which steers us toward a parking garage. Now they’re moving to ban a parking garage,” Manatee County Commission Chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge told WFLA last year. “Seems that Holmes Beach essentially doesn’t want visitors.”
“So they said all funding will be cut off and you’ll do what we say,” Titsworth said.
She said she invited county commissioners to tour the area earlier this year to see the accommodations the city themselves made for parking. SNN reached out to the two commissioners the mayor said came, George Kruse and Jason Bearden.
We heard back from Kruse, who told SNN over the phone that he felt the city made many accommodations on their own and was impressed with their work. He also opposed the parking garage.
However, the state government last year passed a bill to allow Manatee County to build a parking garage without a city permit. It also began a study to see whether the cities of Anna Maria, Holmes Beach, and Bradenton Beach should be consolidated, de-annexed, or merged into the city of Bradenton.
Two Republican state legislators, senator Jim Boyd and representative Will Robinson, are waiting for results.
Titsworth thought the potential of three cities turning into one as a way to get around the parking issues.
“That destroys three charters. And your charter is what allows the citizens to have a voice on big things like height restrictions, density.” Titsworth said. “The constituents make that decision. [Florida’s state government is] taking the voices away from these people. They’re acting like Tallahassee knows better than us”
We reached out to Robinson and Boyd but didn’t hear back in time for the story. However, Robinson told the Herald-Tribune the number of short-term rentals compared to permanent residents raises the question, “Do we really need three police departments, three building departments, three of everything in these small cities? That’s really all it is, it’s a study that evaluates all the options.”
In this case, Titsworth said she believed the increasing number of rentals can be tied to the 2011 state legislature preventing cities from setting limits on length of stay.
“Once we couldn’t control length of stay and neighborhoods became motels, that was the reason residents were booted out,” Titsworth said. “That’s not really fair to say, ‘Well, residents are leaving; you don’t need to be a city anymore.’ But they’re responsible for that.”
One Holmes Beach man we talked to, Aaron McConnell, visits the city yearly. His felt nothing needed to change.
“Sometimes, I think they try to do too much. In this case, I think it’s where it’s at right now. Leave Holmes Beach the way it is,” McConnell said.
State representative Robinson told the Herald-Tribune the results of the study won’t be ready in time for the 2024 session but will likely be considered in 2025.