MADEIRA BEACH – After bouncing back and forth for months between a property owner levy or parking meter fees as a means of financing a $700,000 renovation of the John’s Pass boardwalk, the City Commission has tentatively decided on a formula that blends the two methods.
At the workshop session, City Manager Jill Silverboard asked the commissioners how the costs should be split. Commissioners Arnold Alloway, Steve Kochick and Nancy Oakley favored a 50/50 split for the boardwalk financing, half coming from parking meter revenues, half from an assessment of property owners on the boardwalk.
Mayor Charles Parker said the parking meter fees, which are due to be increased, should be used to pay the entire cost. Let the tourists who benefit from the boardwalk pay for it and give the business owners a break, Parker said.
Wolbert wanted most of the costs paid by the parking meter revenue, but would assess property owners adjacent to the boardwalk for 25 percent.
Patricia Hubbard, whose family owns the Friendly Fisherman restaurant and other businesses along the boardwalk, said the city had agreed to maintain the boardwalk when it was built in the 1970s. Hubbard said the original seven property owners at that time had given up their rights to submerged land beneath the proposed boardwalk.
“Part of the agreement was that the city would maintain it,” she said.
Hubbard also said that property owners along the boardwalk pay higher city taxes than other Village businesses.
Affected business owners have opposed any assessment or parking meter rate increase, insisting that current parking fee revenues are sufficient to pay off the boardwalk renovation costs.
A public hearing on the subject is scheduled for June 26, at which time the commission will decide what percentage, if any, of the boardwalk costs will be assessed to property owners fronting the boardwalk.
