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City eases Mandalay Channel speed limit for smaller boats
By LESTER R. DAILEY
Article published on Thursday, March 23, 2006 |
CLEARWATER – In January 2005, concerned that the wakes from large boats were damaging seawalls and endangering people getting on or off boats, the City Council adopted a slow speed, minimum wake zone for much of the Mandalay Channel.
But at its March 16 meeting, the council modified its 2005 ordinance to allow single-engine boats 25 feet and under to go 35 mph in the channel, between Somerset Street and the northern tip of Island Estates.
The original ordinance was targeted at twin-engine boats more than 25 feet in length that generate huge wakes when running at high speed. City officials never wanted to slow down smaller, single-engine boats, but they were under the mistaken impression that they couldn’t legally set different speed limits for different size boats, so they applied the slow speed limit to all boats.
The city subsequently discovered, however, that Fort Lauderdale and other Florida cities have different speed limits for different size boats, and they decided to do the same.
The plan put forward by Bill Morris, the city’s marine and aviation director, would have kept the slow speed, no wake limit on boats over 25 feet, but allowed smaller boats with a single engine to operate at an undefined “safe” speed. The idea was to allow water skiers, wake boarders and personal watercraft operators to operate freely in the channel while keeping restrictions on the bigger boats.
Proponents of eliminating the speed limit for smaller boats claimed that it is no longer needed because the loss of about 300 boat slips when the high and dry marina on Island Estates was sold to condo developers lessened boat traffic in the channel.
In language suggested by Councilman John Doran, the council kept the slow speed, minimum wake restriction on boats over 25 feet, but imposed a 35 mph speed limit on single-engine boats 25 feet or smaller. Morris testified that 35 mph is an adequate speed for skiers and wake boarders.
“I tend to lean toward letting people recreate and ski,” Hibbard said in support of the compromise. “It’s part of the heritage of this wonderful place where we live.”
In another maritime matter, the city council awarded a routine $345,000 consulting contract for a downtown marina feasibility study that produced some unexpected fireworks.
Longtime Clearwater Beach activist Anne Garris requested to have the measure pulled off the consent agenda, which would have virtually guaranteed its automatic approval, so the matter could be discussed.
“The preliminary design is one more time preempting the public’s waterfront to lease to private individuals,” Garris said, adding that she would like to hear more specifics of the plan.
“I can promise you there’s going to be another misinformation campaign,” Councilman Hoyt Hamilton said after Hibbard said that there would be a referendum vote before anything is done to develop a downtown marina.
Then, without mentioning his name, Hamilton lambasted Fred Thomas, the former Clearwater commissioner and Pinch-a-Penny pool supply company founder who spent $32,000 to help defeat another waterfront development proposal in 2004.
“He missed in Largo two weeks ago,” Hamilton said of Thomas, who supported the failed reelection bid of longtime Mayor Bob Jackson and backed, but later repudiated, Ernie Bach’s unsuccessful campaign for the Largo commission.
“For the first time, he wasn’t able to buy an election. (But) I don’t think it will deter him.”
Vice Mayor Bill Jonson objected and asked that the council “not perjure the intentions” of citizens with a legitimate interest in discussing the marina.
“You have not been personally attacked by these people,” replied Hamilton, whose family was the subject of a mailing sent out by the Save the Bayfront group to which Thomas and Garris belong. “I have, and I will remember that.”
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Article published on Thursday, March 23, 2006
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