ANNA MARIA – When it comes to good citizenry, Jack Brennan takes the prize.

Brennan received the city of Anna Maria’s Citizen of the Year award during the final city commission meeting of 2016.

The award selection committee was headed by Bob Carter and also consisted of Irene Pearman, Ruth Uecker and Mary Manion. Before presenting Brennan with the award on Thursday, Dec. 22, Carter addressed the commission and the many members of the public on hand for the ceremony, including Jack’s wife, Lynn Brennan.

“It’s a pleasure for me to talk a little bit about Jack Brennan. One of the things our committee was so impressed with had to do with all the volunteer work he’s done on behalf of others. Jack is one of those people who sees something and says somebody ought to do something about it, and he does it. Everything that Jack does is for someone else, and that really struck us,” Carter said.

“Jack chairs the Historical Preservation Committee. He’s vice president of AMI Community Development Fund Inc. He’s a member of the Connections Committee of AMI Home Sweet Home. He’s the new chair of the Roser Food Pantry and an active member of Roser Community Church, where he serves as an usher. Overall, our committee had a unanimous vote to name Jack Brennan as our Citizen of the Year this year,” Carter said.

Brennan is also leading the city’s efforts to modify its historic preservation ordinance and to obtain a Florida Certified Local Government (CLG) certification that would ensure Anna Maria’s local preservation program serves as the city’s strongest preservation tool. Obtaining the CLG certification would help the city incentivize the preservation of the remaining cottages and bungalows that once served as Anna Maria’s architectural norm.

After a nice round of applause, Brennan stood at the podium and said, “As a kid, we were competitive as heck – we wanted the trophies, we wanted the awards, we wanted everything. As an adult, I grew up and really preferred giving rather than receiving and public accolades such as Citizen of the Year, that really sounds like a big deal to me, but I’m not a big deal, just ask my wife. I want everyone involved with this whole process and the citizens to just know that I appreciate it. Thank you very much.”

Joined by Mayor Dan Murphy, Carter presented Brennan with the plaque that commemorates his award.

After the presentation, commission chair Doug Copeland said, “Congratulations Jack, well-deserved.”

Standing outside city hall afterwards, Brennan said, “I never expected it. It feels really good. It’s a very nice recognition.”

Brennan owns and operates Paladin Golf Marketing, a firm that helps golf course owners better market and promote their golf courses and services. The Brennans met 30 years ago. They built a house on the Island 24 ½ years ago and they moved to the Island permanently four and a half years ago.

BRADENTON BEACH – Planning and Zoning Board members reached consensus last week on recommended land development regulations that if approved would significantly reduce the size of homes built in the R-1 and R-2 residential zones.

During its Dec. 21 meeting, board members unanimously agreed to recommend to the Bradenton Beach City Commission that the maximum platted lot size be limited to 5,000 square feet, rather than the 7,500 square feet currently allowed. Properties that currently exceed 5,000 square feet would be grandfathered in.

If adopted, developers who wish to combine two or more lots would still be subjected to size and density calculations based on a maximum lot size of 5,000 square feet. Combined lots would provide for larger yards and more green space, but not for a larger structure.

The board also reached unanimous but temporary consensus that structures built should not exceed 40 percent of the property’s total square footage. If supported by the city commission, this recommendation would allow a maximum of 2,000 square feet of habitable, air-conditioned space on a 5,000 square foot lot. Additional non-habitable space would be allowed for patios, porches, lanais and other exterior amenities.

Lots smaller than 5,000 square feet would also be limited to the 40 percent ratio, which would result in a 2,400 square foot lot being limited to approximately 1,000 square feet of habitable space.

Before removing the temporary status of this consensus, the board asked City Planner Alan Garrett to provide them with additional insight and some building diagram examples its Wednesday, Dec. 28, meeting.

“We’ve taken a major step here with our temporary consensus,” Garrett said.

The board discussed following the city of Anna Maria’s lead in allowing no more than 30 percent of the allowed living space to be located on the structure’s second living level. Chair John Burns suggested the board present the commission with a second option that would allow two 1,000 square foot living levels to be built atop one another on a 5,000 square foot lot.

The board reached consensus that all off-street parking areas located on a property should be designated by and covered with a permeable surface such as turf block, permeable pavers, 5700 stone, pea gravel or some other material that provides drainage while establishing city-approved parking areas.

These efforts are directed at maintaining the cottage and bungalow-style architectural vision established for the city many years ago, while reducing the size and lessening the impact some large vacation rentals have on residential neighborhoods. The proposed land use regulations are a follow-up to the Transient Public Lodging Establishment regulations previously developed by the board and now awaiting city commission workshop discussion.

At the Dec. 21 meeting it was noted that placing greater restrictions on a property owner’s ability to develop or redevelop their property could subject the city to Bert Harris claims that seek compensation for the devaluation of private property.

Public input is accepted at planning board meetings and potentially impacted parties are encouraged to attend and participate in these land use regulation discussions. All planning board recommendations require city commission approval.

Members of the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Agency (MPO) plan to discuss in January a petition presented to them by Longboat Key resident Tom Freiwald, according to an email from Dave Hutchinson, executive director of the MPO, to local elected officials.

The petition asks for “immediate action to mitigate local vehicular traffic congestion during the 2017 tourist season.” It asks the Florida Department of Transportation to cooperate with the MPO and local municipalities “to institute pilot programs (temporary solutions) during peak traffic hours.”

Solutions include:

• Manual control of the traffic signal at 119th Street in Cortez and a continuous, always green eastbound lane from Cortez Bridge.

• Manually controlled and/or more efficient traffic and pedestrian light timing at John Ringling Causeway at Tamiami Trail and Sunset Drive/Golden Gate Point, Ken Thompson Parkway and Longboat Club Road at Gulf of Mexico Drive and Fruitville Road at Tamiami Trail.

• Pedestrian control, bypass routes and temporary elimination of several parking spaces from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at St. Armands Circle.

• Prohibit drawbridge openings for training, testing and maintenance from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“The purpose of these pilot programs is to mitigate short-term traffic congestion, test the efficiency of each program and then develop and institute longer term solutions as part of the new traffic study,” said the petition.

Past proposal

In March the four Island mayors sent a letter to officials in the cities of Bradenton and Sarasota, Manatee and Sarasota counties, the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Agency and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) regarding ways to immediately impact traffic congestion on the barrier islands.

Short-term transportation priorities included:

• Determine the viability and effectiveness of express buses both on Manatee Avenue and Cortez Road, with only two to three central pick up stops in Bradenton/Palmetto and ending at the Manatee or Coquina beaches. Provide rider coupons for use at beach concessions and collaborate with local business to promote service. Gather data on the number of users for recreation purposes and determine the most appropriate type of bus to serve this user group.

• In coordination with Manatee County, lease a portion of the parking lots at 75th Street and Manatee Avenue and 75th Street and Cortez Road and offer shuttle service to and from the Island for Island employees. Coordinate with the Chambers of Commerce and local businesses to encourage employees to use bus service and collect data on trip usage. Work with Chambers to coordinate drop off locations, work hours, shift changes, etc. to make a shuttle more efficient.

• Reduce drawbridge lifts on Cortez, Anna Maria Island and New Pass bridges to one per hour and less during peak traffic periods and consider a reduction in lifts on the Longboat Pass Bridge.

• Monitor traffic flow remotely using the cameras already installed and adjust red light/green light time accordingly to facilitate the flow off and onto the Island.

• Continue to press forward with the currently funded FDOT study on bridge openings and automated traffic signal timer (four lights) for monitoring and adjusting signal timing from the Manatee County Traffic Management Center.

• Consider manual override of traffic signal for law enforcement to allow for maximum traffic flow on or off the Island as needed on heavy beach days.

• Increase Island trolleys to two routes from Coquina Beach to Manatee Beach and Manatee Beach to Anna Maria and provide an extra trolley when needed.

• Improve traffic light operations at Cortez Bridge to 119th Street to allow better traffic flow on Cortez Road. Consider a proposal by a citizen representing the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force.

In May the mayors said they received two replies – one from Sarasota County and one from FDOT. At that time, FDOT officials said improvements would be developed from the list as part of the planned Sarasota/Manatee Barrier Island traffic study.

ANNA MARIA – Christmas came early for approximately 80 children last Wednesday at the Sandbar restaurant. The kids, many from Head Start and RCMA, a non-profit childcare in Palmetto, were treated to fun on the beach with face painting, bounce houses, slides and cartoon characters. There also was live music.

Then came lunch featuring chicken strips, French fries, pasta and fruit for kids and parents. After they ate, Santa appeared in the Gulf on a personal watercraft. The kids and parents ran toward the water as the watercraft neared the shore and finally, Santa got out and was greeted by the children. He picked some up while others were content to hug him, but it wasn’t easy because the jolly fellow had put on some pounds.

Santa proceeded to a small stand where he took a seat. Some of the kids posed in front of him for a group photo before settling down to business.

Volunteers started calling names of kids to come up for a photo with Santa and bags of gifts. Each child received a new pair of shoes, an outfit of clothing, an age appropriate toy and a voucher for a food basket for the family. Sandbar owner Ed Chiles praised events coordinator Patti McKee, who organizes the event every year, and his staff, who put together the bags of presents, and members of the public who donated to the project for the gifts.

HOLMES BEACH – Planning commissioners debated minor development procedures at a recent meeting.

City Planner Bill Brisson had created a definition for minor development and procedures to allow a site plan to be administratively approved by the building official. The proposal generated a great deal of discussion at a previous meeting in November, which continued at the Dec. 7 meeting.

Member Barbara Hines, who had expressed at the previous meeting objections to giving the building official too much power, continued to be skeptical.

“Given the history we have had with past building officials approving all sorts of things that really should have gone before the city commission, I think it would be a slippery slope,” she said.

However, member Scott Boyd pointed out, “The city commission is legislative and executive. It is not intended to be staff. Staff should be empowered to make decisions and execute their job.”

“If you try and extend him or her some sense of autonomy in the process to do his job and then you end up neutering it so bad that he can’t do his job, why bother doing it?”

Concerns continue

Hines continued to express concern about a previous building official that she said would piecemeal developments, but member Chuck Stealey stressed, “We all recognize that. I don’t think we can say the missteps of the past should be laid on our current staff.

“If we have a professional in the building department and we have professional staff and trust them to abide by the law, we should give them the authority to do that.”

“It’s very dangerous policy to pass something based on finally having a competent building official,” Hines countered. “We need a policy that’s going to work whether we have somebody competent or not.”

Boyd pointed out that if the building official is not following the law he/she can be terminated.

Chair Gary Hickerson suggested that the building official periodically submit a report to the city commission at a regular meeting regarding minor developments he/she has approved.

“That’s an excellent idea,” Stealey said. “If the city commission doesn’t like the way things are going they would find out right away.”

Boyd agreed and noted that would make it part of the public record.

Planning commissioners made some minor changes in the procedures and asked Brisson to bring a revised version to the next meeting on Jan. 4 for discussion.

HOLMES BEACH – City Planner Bill Brisson has submitted his thoughts regarding a request from the owners of the Ugly Grouper to obtain a liquor license.

He said city approval would be premature for the following reasons:

• The approval of the Barefoot Tiki Bar in 2014, involved only beer and wine sales, a limited number of indoor and outdoor seats, an outdoor recreation area and an outdoor performance stage with limited times of operations and other stipulations. Some of the approvals were inconsistent with Chapter 6 of the city’s code involving alcoholic beverages, and any intensification/expansion of the use would require compliance with Chapter 6.

• Changing from a beer and wine license to another type of license was not included in the original site plan approval therefore, it must be included in the site plan review.

• All uses in the commercial districts are site plan specific. Since nightclub is not listed as a permitted use in the district, the city commission must approve the requested change to the liquor license as part of the site plan approval process.

Definitions

He said, Chapter 6 also contains the following definitions:

• Nightclub means a restaurant, dining room, lounge, bottle club or similar establishment where alcoholic beverages are sold or dispensed for consumption on the premises where a floor show, band, disc jockey or other entertainment is provided for guests at any time during the hours of 8:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. the following day.

• Prohibition. No person, including without limitation the officers, employees, servants or agents of any person holding a vendor's alcoholic beverage license, shall operate a nightclub or bottle club within the city limits of the city where alcoholic beverages are sold or dispensed for consumption on the premises unless all doors and windows of the establishment or licensed premises are kept closed at all times to control the noise level outside the premises.

Nothing contained in this section shall prohibit the opening of doors by patrons to provide ingress and egress to and from the premises, provided that no doors are left propped open when not being used by patrons for ingress and egress to and from the premises.

ANNA MARIA – On Tuesday, Dec. 20, Fernande Antoine and Muller Thelusma represented the U.S. based World Harvest Mission and the Haiti based New Life 4 Kids organizations when accepting the $8,000 check The Waterfront Restaurant & Craft Bar and its patrons raised during the Dec. 5 “A Day for Haiti” fund-raiser.

Waterfront owners Jason and Leah Suzor organized the fund-raiser because they wanted to assist Haitian children and the New Life Children’s Home orphanage after Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti in October.

“I just feel like people had forgotten about it. We employ a lot of Haitians and felt like we wanted to give back to their country and their fellow countrymen and women,” Jason Suzor said.

Antoine and Thelusma are among the six Haitians employed at the fine dining establishment located across the street from the Anna Maria City Pier.

“Thanks to all the people that came and ate and supported it and also to those who made donations,” Suzor said, noting that 100 percent of the sales that day went to New Life 4 Kids via World Harvest Missions.

“They still need stuff. They had an earthquake and a hurricane back to back. Hopefully we’ll spark some more donations. If people want to donate, they can go to NewLife4Kids.com and make a donation,” Suzor said.

BRADENTON BEACH – The developers of a property at 2514 Gulf Drive were issued a stop work order last week because their de-watering of the vacant lot flooded the state road for multiple days.

Bradenton Beach Code Enforcement Officer Gail Garneau issued the stop work order at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 21 after the city received several complaints from residents about the man-made flooding that began the previous Friday near the Sandpiper Resort, Sharky’s Seagrill and Club Bamboo.

The work crew was using a pump to remove groundwater in preparation of laying the concrete foundation. After the stop work order was issued, the pump was turned off and no more de-watering could take place. The stop work order pertained to the unauthorized pumping only, and once the pump was turned off, other site work was allowed to continue as long as no more water was pumped onto Gulf Drive/S.R. 789. Gulf Drive is a state road, which led to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) requesting the de-watering be stopped.

In order to resume pumping, the contractor will need a storage tank or an onsite retention area in order to prevent the removed water from leaving the property. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection does not allow the water to be pumped onto the onto the beach that lies between the property and the Gulf.

According to Garneau, the concrete permit was issued to 2508 Tristar LLC, with Shawn Kaleta’s to Bay Construction, serving as the contractor, and Jack Schneider, serving as the project manager. The property is located between two other Kaleta-built vacation rentals.

A memo accompanying the stop work order was sent to the Schneider and attorney Louis Najmy.

“Any person, firm or organization who continues work in violation of this order may be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction may be punished as provided by law,” the memo stated.

Garneau also sent an e-mail to Speciale, Mayor Bill Shearon, Public Works Director Tom Woodward, Building Official Steve Gilbert and others that said, “I personally observed the pump being shut off. We will continue to monitor the situation.”

After Wednesday afternoon’s Planning and Zoning Board meeting, Shearon said this was the third time a Kaleta-related construction project has produced street flooding in that area, but the first time a stop work order was issued.

At 9:18 a.m. that morning, FDOT District 1 Operations Engineer Albert Rosenstein sent Speciale, Shearon and others an e-mail addressing the violation.
“The contractor has not stopped pumping into the roadway. I’ve already informed him that he needs to shut down. Our permits department told him that we cannot issue a permit to de-water onto State Road 789 because there is no inlet to pump to. Despite both conversations, he continues to pump water on State Road 789. He is ignoring what we’ve asked him to do.

"Since FDOT is not an enforcement agency, I’m asking for your assistance to tell him to stop pumping water onto the roadway. This is a safety issue and a hazard for vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists,” Rosenstein wrote.

On Monday, Dec. 19, Rosenstein sent Woodard and others an e-mail that referenced a visit he and FDOT Maintenance Program Manager Phil Catalano made to the property.

“Phil and I stopped by the construction site and told the contractor that he cannot discharge the ground water to the roadway. He is going to try and pour concrete this afternoon and then shut down the pump.”

Two days later, the pump was still being used.