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County working for better boater access

By PAUL SWIDER
Published March 12, 2006

In the ongoing search for enhanced boater access, Pinellas County officials are working in a fluid environment.

"Every week, there's another property we're talking to," said county parks and recreation director Paul Cozzie, who is working with the recommendations of last year's boating access task force. With waterfront property often bought up for residential development, county officials are working to make it possible for people to get on the water.

Early plans ran into trouble when the county was considering developing a boat ramp on Travatine Island, a parcel just south of Park Boulevard on the Intracoastal Waterway that the county had previously bought for environmental preservation. Activists started a campaign to keep Travatine clean and the county took the option off the table. But the access task is still prominent.

"Our goal is to preserve access," Cozzie said, "and possibly to create more opportunities."

Cozzie said he has met with at least a dozen marina and waterfront property owners since December to discuss their plans and accommodating public access. Though those owners face financial pressure to sell, Cozzie is hoping the county can help them in exchange for them maintaining public access. That help could include buying property and leasing it back to operators so they don't face the escalating tax costs that drive them to consider selling in the first place.

In April the county will also hold an intergovernmental meeting to discuss access cooperation with cities like St. Petersburg and Madeira Beach, both of which would like to expand their municipal marinas but might like help in doing so. From permitting to funding, Cozzie said the county might be able to facilitate expansions or improvements.

"We don't have the funds to build," said Madeira Beach City Manager Jill Silverboard. "But we do have the land."

Silverboard said the city has talked to the county about cooperating on expanding its existing marina but also about building wet slips, not a marina, in the area just behind City Hall. She said the primary aim is marina expansion, but the City Hall property could allow for some of the larger slips that are in demand. The city is also considering building a high-and-dry at its marina for boat storage.

Lee Metzger, the St. Petersburg city services administrator overseeing parks, said his city is interested in talking to the county about help in expanding its marina, but there is more interest in boat ramps.

"They're not talking a lot about boat ramps," he said, noting the city has 18 ramps in nine locations, all of which need some repair or expanded parking. "The public that lives in this community wants access to the water."

Metzger said he is interested also in the county building a boat ramp on its property at the southwest foot of the Gandy Bridge. He said a similar ramp on the Tampa side gets a lot of traffic because it provides quick access to open water.

"To us, Gandy would be a great area," he said.

The Stauffer Chemical Superfund site along the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs is still under consideration, because it cannot be developed for housing, but Cozzie said there are now private interests talking about buying that. The county would seek to develop a cooperative relationship with a new owner.

The county had also been considering developing wet slips or a marina on a property adjacent to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, but federal aviation concerns may make that difficult, Cozzie said. He also said there had been talks about collaboration at Great American Marine in Gulfport, but when Marine Max and Brunswick bought that property in February, those talks dissipated.

[Last modified March 12, 2006, 01:18:21]