Law limiting personal watercrafts on South Lido still a year away

Nearby residents and passive users of Ted Sperling Park on the south end of Lido Key will have to wait several more months, if not a year, for what they describe as a needed relief from the noise and dangers of personal watercraft use there.

During its Nov. 18 meeting, the Sarasota County Commission was set to vote on a more restrictive of two options to abate the continuous weekend conflicts between renters of PWCs and swimmers off the shore of South Lido Beach. As Ted Sperling Park is in the Sarasota city limits but owned and operated by Sarasota County, affected persons have complained to both governing bodies for years.

The situation gained renewed and intensified attention in June 2025 when Baltimore Orioles minor league baseball player Luis Guevara, 19, was killed in a head-on collision while operating PWC at high speed off South Lido Beach.

During a discussion on the matter at its Oct. 21, 2025 meeting, the County Commission directed staff to advertise a public hearing on an ordinance to establish an exclusion zone off the beach, of what is otherwise a nature park, that would restrict any motorized vessel from entering the area. The net effect would be to prevent PWC rental operators from conducting commerce in the park and any vessels from launching from or beaching there.

Since then, commissioners learned, it isn’t quite that simple.

Courtesy image

Enforcement is one challenge. Sarasota Police Department and Sheriff’s Office marine units have plenty of other coastal areas to patrol. But the biggest obstacle would be securing approval of the multiple state and federal agencies — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard, Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Wildlife Commission — to implement the ordinance.

And all those regulatory acrobatics, even if approved, would take nine to 12 months to complete.

Response from the FWC, commissioners learned, suggests an exclusion zone would not hold water. The representative of the West Coast Inland Navigation District (WCIND) also told commissioners they oppose any measure restricting watercraft access.

“In listening to WCIND and FWC response, and when I read through them, it was pretty glaring that they are not interested in participating at this level,” said Commissioner Teresa Mast of an exclusion zone. “I don't want to put something in place that is not going to even be able to be implemented. I definitely want the citizens to know that we care about how they feel and their safety, but we also have to find a happy medium, or something that we can enforce.”

That something, commissioners approved by a 4-1 vote with Mark Smith opposed, was to pursue the less restrictive option to create a 300-foot idle speed no wake zone off South Lido Beach. That option, Commissioner Tom Knight suggested, would likely be more amenable to the FWC, which will ultimately decide implementing any restrictions. 

Because the advertised public hearing is regarding an exclusion zone ordinance, there needs to be another advertisement as an idle speed and no-wake zone, which will be on the January 2026 schedule.

In the interim, commissioners asked local law enforcement to investigate perhaps non-licensed PWC rental operations in the park.

“I went out there. These people aren't from here,” said Commissioner Tom Knight. “They’re from the Orange County area. How much enforcement activities been put upon these individuals? I know something's got to be done, but I’d just like to know what type of law enforcement happened out there not the only on noise. I'm talking about bad actors.”