Charter boat program would limit county park access to 124 permits

Charter tour and fishing operators who use Sarasota County public parks will have to bid for access to boat ramps and piers to pick up and drop off passengers. 

That is the recommendation of a task force appointed by the Sarasota County Commission to advise on how to resolve unauthorized use public parks by private charter captains, a decades-old situation county officials say has become unamanageable since the start of the pandemic. 

On Sept. 11, commissioners voted 4-1, with Neil Rainford opposed while calling the motion short-sighted, to accept the task force report with one modification and instruct staff to craft an ordinance to be considered at a future public hearing. Rather than allowing charter operators to bid for up to four permits per each of three zones — North, Mid-County and South — commissioners decided to limit that to two permits per operator per zone to allow for greater participation.

That means a single operator is eligible for as many as six permits across all three zones.

The task force recommended a starting bid is $1,200 per permit, with excess proceeds to benefit acquisition of additional waterfront properties to support the growing need of water access in the county. Those permits are good for a period of three years. The final form of the ordinance could be modified following the public hearing, the report characterized by Commissioner Mark Smith as “a good starting point.”

Commissioner Ron Cutsinger called it “something of an experiment” that will likely evolve over time.

“I don't think there's any way this is going to stay the way it is,” said Chairman Mike Moran. “There’s going to be have some adjustments. I think the intent of all of this was clear, and I think we're getting closer to the intent of fixing some of these behaviors.”

Photo by Andrew Warfield

On April 23, the commission seated the five-member task force, which met seven times between June 1 and Aug. 1. The group included two charter tour operators with a local business tax receipt in Jason Kobza and Brad Donahue, two water access/marina property owners or charter tour operators who lease land abutting a marine park in Sherman Baldwin and Chairman Mason Tush, and one county resident at-large in Tony Nakonestschny, who resigned on June 14 and was not replaced.

In all, 124 permits, or medallions, would be allocated across the three zones, but initially 20 may not be available in the North Zone as Nora Patterson Park, while county-owned, lies within the Sarasota city limit just west of the Siesta Drive bridge. The park is currently zoned for residential use. Issuing permits for businesses in the park may require a rezoning and other approvals from the city.

The number of permits was determined by a formula factoring use of 50% or the parking spaces available within each park. The permit program applies six-passenger uninspected passenger vessels — or “six pack” — fishing charters and tour excursions operated out of the county parks system. The program does not apply to the Centennial Park boat ramps nor Ken Thompson Park at City Island, both of which are owned by the City of Sarasota.

Although the majority of commissioners agreed to reduce the limit to two permits per operator per zone, Rainford was concerned that leaves out too many current operators, potentially putting the largely private family businesses out of business, particularly with Nora Patterson Park possibly inaccessible at the outset of implementation. 

“If we're at 124 (medallions) in the recommendation, and 20 are coming off the board immediately because they can't be issued until that rezone goes through, I would lead more toward one (permit) until that discussion is had at a later date,” Rainford said. 

Later to Smith’s motion, he said, “The 20 most affluent charter captains could potentially have six of these each and put the others out of business. So I will not be supporting this. I think it's short sighted.”

Opportunities for more access may be on the way. Rainford said the entire matter of the water access for the fishing and tour charter industry, which draws tourism and the resulting revenue, remains a challenge given limited public and private boat access to the gulf. Parks, Recreation & Natural Resources Director Kim Rissler hinted that relief may be forthcoming.

“This coincides with the board direction that we've given previously that we need more boat ramps,” Rainford said. “I just saw recently Manatee County put a significant value on some land to acquire some additional land for boat ramps, and we should be doing the same.”

Replied Rissler, “ You have a board policy item that will be brought to you very shortly about that.”