PANAMA CITY (AP) — After shaking the ship with a proposed ordinance to announce activity at public boat launches last month, Panama City officials are seeking a compromise with corporations that operate on the water.
Officials held a workshop at City Hall on Thursday to get feedback from citizens and businesses on Order 3082.
Commissioners and business owners have expressed a preference for a solution. Mayor Greg Brudnicki said the commissioners obtained valuable data from the ships’ captains.
“I think (the workshop) highlighted some things that we had no idea about or hadn’t achieved. . . I knew most of the challenges we had didn’t come from the fishermen,” Brudnicki said. “I’m glad fishermen arrived, I think we can solve the challenge pretty quickly. “
Tipping the boat: Panama City receives negative reactions for proposal on boat launching
Similar order: The county prohibits the use of 11 boatboats. Is yours on the list?
City officials said they plan to reformulate the ordinance and start over with a first reading. No date has been set for the vote on the rewritten order.
“I think there will be a lot of adjustments to the ordinance that we’ve made. First we took the resolution to separate parks from boat launch activity,” said Commissioner Josh Street. “I can’t say enough how I am very grateful to all the captains who came forward to share their feedback and their mind and helped us understand how we can better serve them and how we can ultimately develop public access. “
The proposed order was presented at the commission’s July 12 assembly to ban boat advertising activity in the city’s parks and boats. The order would also require advertising sellers to download a permit and purchase insurance to use a boat.
The following proposed neighborhood ramps would include all advertising activity:
Commercial activity would be allowed in Panama City Marina and St. Andrews, with regulations.
The order comes 3 months after Bay County passed an ordinance similar to commercial activity at 11 boat launches in the neighborhood.
Quality of Life Director Sean DePalma said officials saw an increase in business activity in Panama City parks after the county passed its ordinance.
“Right now, we have airboat trips to carl Gray Park’s business. We have jet skis, from parasailing to the Carl Gray Park business,” DePalma said. ship. . . we had all this activity without regulation. . . “
Officials said they had won court cases from citizens and personal boat owners, corporations were causing traffic jams, parking disturbances, noise disturbances and harmful conditions.
Fishermen and boat captains said the proposed order would damage their businesses.
The city said most of the unregulated business activities are located in Carl Gray Park.
Some wondered why community ramps were included, to which officials pointed to the new dormitories at Florida State University in Panama City next to the park and neighboring homes.
Brad Stevens, owner of SunJammers in St. Andrews, said allowing Carl Gray to do business can be positive for students.
“A lot of those (students) in the dorms would like to have recreational activities there. . . Most of them don’t have cars or bikes, so having something very available to them, I think would be a long way to help the educational delight at FSU-PC,” Stevens said.
Officials said schools are contemplating recreational activities in the park. Street said he was open to the idea of allowing certain coupons for advertising purposes.
Business owners have reduced requests for reduced parking, saying they come in and out early in the morning. They said that even when there are many other people on the ramps, it is only the summer months and it is after the maximum is exhausted. for the day.
“Now I don’t know about kayaks and I don’t know about jet skis and all that stuff. It’s an absolutely different ball game than charter captains. We went in and out,” Captain Fred Trotter said. If I’m there for more than 30 minutes, it wastes my time and I start to get a little agitated. “
Capt. James Pic, who runs a fly fishing business, said officials deserve the other types of boat owners at marinas when they issue licenses and make sure they are equivalent to each other. He said he uses st. Andrews’ marina to pick up his customers.
He added his considerations on the impact the order will have on neighboring businesses.
“The big challenge he’s going through is the number of boats he can allow to be released every day on St. Andrews because other people like me, my other people are passing by to come there and they are passing by to get on my boat. in the morning. They will leave their fish blank. They’re stopping by to pick up their fish and they’ll probably stop by for lunch or somewhere else for lunch,” Pic said. We bring cash to the domain array, you don’t need to get rid of it. “