BRADENTON BEACH – Commissioners reached no conclusions on Feb. 15 while discussing expanding the city’s boundaries in the Intracoastal Waterway to increase jurisdiction over the city’s mooring field.
The discussion arose from Bradenton Beach Marina’s offer to partner with the city to act as harbormaster, provide pump-out service and coordinate payment for the mooring field.
City attorney Ricinda Perry presented the idea of a partnership with the marina at a Feb. 1 city commission meeting.
Mayor John Chappie said at the Feb. 15 meeting that one of the concerns would be vessels moving south to avoid regulations in the mooring field.
He lauded local law enforcement for removing abandoned and derelict vessels from the waters off Bradenton Beach.
“We’ve been leaders in the area in the ability to get rid of abandoned and derelict boats and I wanted to say thank you to the marine patrol,” Chappie said.
“Part one is figuring out what we want to do with the mooring field area,” Perry said. “We’ve had discussions in the past about having stronger regulations as it relates to the floating dock. If you’re going to have the mooring field, will those vessels drift into other parts of the city where regulations can’t be put into place or enforcement can’t be made available as easily since they’re not within the municipal boundaries.”
Commission Jan Vosburgh expressed concerns about the propensity of boats to move southward if there is a mooring field.
“We have to think about the residents, not just what’s going to happen on Bridge Street where we have the pier. It’s not fair to the residents who are living further south,” she said. “I’m against a mooring field.”
Commissioner Marilyn Maro phoned into the meeting and asked if the Bradenton Beach mooring field would be like the one in Sarasota.
“It won’t be near as large as Sarasota,” Chappie said.
The expansion would bring the city-designated water area to 14th Street South, just south of the Coquina mooring, 500 feet out to the Intracoastal Waterway, Chappie said.
Cole noted that the expansion would allow tougher restrictions in that area.
“The annexation part will cover all those waters so our marine patrol would be legally allowed to enter those waters,” Chappie said.
Bradenton Beach Police Chief John Cosby addressed Vosburgh’s concerns.
“The majority of boats you’re referring to come from Sarasota when Sarasota enacted their mooring area, they moved this way,” Cosby said. “To say that those boats move from our field is not true. There’s one there now and we’re taking care of that one.”
Cosby said boundary expansion should happen before the discussion of a mooring field.
“The mooring makes no sense to me. I don’t think the water’s deep enough to get the kind of boats you need in there to make any money,” Cosby said. “And all that seagrass that was put in there, we’ve done channeling so no boats can go there. To make it profitable, I don’t think it’s possible, I don’t know.”
A work session will be scheduled to continue the discussion.
