MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — An avid fisherman, Kory Watson uses the Riverside Boat Ramp in Palmetto often.
Wednesday, he hopped on a friend’s boat and launched from the ramp for an afternoon of targeting redfish and snook.
Watson and his friend are not alone. Plenty of other people use the ramp on the Manatee River. The ramp’s popularity has meant parking can be challenging, especially on weekends.
“It’s really not enough parking as it is for the weekend,” Watson said.
An undeveloped city-owned property across the street has provided some relief. It’s become an unofficial parking lot.
“If we don’t have the parking lot across the street, then this boat ramp’s useless,” Watson said.
However, in mid-May, the city agreed to start negotiating with a potential developer for the site.
According to online documents, Apogee Real Estate Partners hopes to build a 7-story apartment building and restaurants on the site. Boat trailer parking would also be included, but the current amount would be reduced to 21 spaces.
“We know it’s not enough,” said Elaine Johnson. “When you’ve got 80 to 100 boaters using that parking every weekend day and up to 30 to 40 on Fridays and Monday and all through the week, there’s no way that’s going to be enough for this area.”
Johnson had been one of the people opposing the sale of the property.
However, if development is to happen, she’s hopeful Apogee can provide more than 21 spaces and other concessions for boaters.
Monday, she emailed Apogee and requested a meeting.
“We would like to get some of the representatives from the community to sit down and have a meeting with them,” Johnson said. “We are not happy — the community’s not happy with their current proposal.”
However, Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant is happy with redeveloping the land she says the city specifically bought to revitalize.
“It’s never been a city parking lot for boat parking,” she said.
While Bryant admits that Manatee County needs more boat ramps and trailer parking, she says Palmetto has bigger, more pressing needs. According to Bryant, the city needs more housing and more tax revenue to help it fund more expensive city services and salaries.
“We’ve got to survive and to survive, you have to grow,” the mayor said.
Without growth and development on the Riverside Drive site, she thinks the average taxpayer will ultimately have to shoulder the load.
“We would be derelict in our duties to not look out for that person because they may be unable to sustain increased taxes. We need to do that with growth and redevelopment in the City of Palmetto,” she said.
Bryant said negotiations with the potential developer, Apogee, have so far been “favorable” and “positive.”
