Residents hopeful for commissioner support

Residents let out a collective cheer as Manatee County Commissioners told county staff, after several hours of discussion, that they would take no action on restricting golf carts from three county roads.

Residents from Palm Aire and Tara filled the chambers Tuesday, Oct. 6, in protest of two proposals brought forth by the county’s traffic management department. One was to increase speed limits on a variety of county road segments and the other was to remove the golf cart designation from several communities surrounded by golf courses.

Residents held signs in the audience with messages like, “Golf carts add value to Palm Aire homes, vote NO,” and “Listen to the people who put you in office” in addition to giving public comments. The commissioners heard them.

“I’m not going to take a quality of life away,” said Vanessa Baugh, District 5 Commissioner at the meeting. “We are getting larger, we are growing, but rather than hindering people going back and forth to the club, we need to be looking at ways we can work on roads and areas they use.”

The commissioners directed staff to research the topic more thoroughly and come up with alternative solutions — much to the chagrin of the traffic engineers, who brought the issue of golf carts before the commissioners for safety concerns.

Sage Kamiya, deputy director of traffic management, said after the commissioners’ questioning that there had only been a few accidents in the proposed areas.

“But do we need to have a crash to justify doing something?" he asked. "With the volume of vehicles on the roadway… I could not say it’s a good idea to take out your golf cart. I can’t do that in good conscience.”

Baugh and the other commissioners briefly discussed potential options, such as designating sidewalks for golf carts or grandfathering in current communities at which golf carts were allowed in the streets, while crafting a future response to new communities.

“People have lived there 20 years, they moved there because it’s a golf course community,” Baugh said. “To look at it today and take it away… They’re very serious about their lifestyle.”

Don Betts, a Palm Aire resident, stuck out the entire portion of the commission meeting, both the speed limit and golf cart items, for six hours. It was the first time he had attended one of the Manatee County commissioners meetings.

“It was worth the wait,” he said. “I was really pleased, pleasantly surprised at the commissioners.”

Baugh’s description of the community lifestyle “nailed it,” Betts said. He moved to the Palm Aire community in 2004 because his parents lived there for 30 years and he became attached to the area, the club and the course.

“This particular club allows you to have a private cart. That was a strong factor for joining this club,” he said. “I may not have joined if I had to drive my car to the club to play golf… I can just hop on my cart and go.”

Karen Clark, president of the Tara Master Association, was also pleased with the commissioner’s responsiveness to the plea of the constituents.

“I feel certain that the commissioners understand that the residents value the lifestyle we all bought into,” she said. “It was definitely against the advice of the engineers, they felt it was safety factor.”

She doesn’t think that designating sidewalks for golf carts will be a solution for the Tara communities, however. Their sidewalks are too narrow, and curb or drop off on either side which would prevent safe passage around a pedestrian or another cart.

“It’s not an option for us unless (the sidewalks) were reconfigured,” Clark said.

Many of the residents in the room were from Palm Aire, but Clark and about five others from the Tara Master Association attended as well to represent Tara's two golfing communities, the Preserve at Tara and Tara Golf & Country Club.

“I do believe when this comes up again, we’ll have a larger group,” she said.