HOLMES BEACH, Fla. — As the sun dips behind the Gulf of Mexico, the sky glows pink. Tourists admiring the view sip cold draft beer while a musician strums an acoustic guitar in the background.
It sounds like a scene from a Jimmy Buffett song, but really, it’s just a typical day on Anna Maria Island in Manatee County.
For a few days each year, Traci Keyes gets to experience the unique experience Anna Maria Island offers when she vacations there with her family from Minnesota.
“When we left, the next day, it was snowing and zero degrees,” she said with a laugh as she watched the sunset with her family members.
She chooses to spend her money on the island because of its simple, laid-back charm that many other coastal communities lack.
There are no cheap tourist traps, no loud party scenes and no huge hotels that eclipse the scenic views.
“The last three times we’ve come, we’ve stayed in houses where we can just see the ocean right from our balconies,” Keyes said.
But Judy Titsworth, a mayor on Anna Maria Island—which stretches seven miles in length—worries the island’s trademark charm is now threatened.
“I am nervous, and it does keep me up at night," she said.
Titsworth is the mayor of Holmes Beach, one of the three incorporated cities on the island. The City of Anna Maria is located to its north and the City of Bradenton Beach to its south.
Among other similarities, each city has its own mayor, its own police department and its own budget.
“We’re thriving,” Titsworth said of her city, Holmes Beach. “We have a comprehensive plan that has protected our city from overgrowth and too much development, so it’s still an amazing — an amazing — place to live. One of the top 50 destinations to visit.”
Titsworth believes the island’s governance is the reason it is not over-commercialized.
In Holmes Beach, for instance, there are rules in place to keep buildings below 36 feet in height. There are also rules restricting short-term rentals like Airbnbs.
Titsworth said there's no telling what Holmes Beach would look like if not for its municipal government.
Rep. Will Robinson (R-Bradenton), however, thinks some island leaders like Titsworth are over-regulating Anna Maria Island.
For instance, he takes issue with Holmes Beach’s rules regulating the retail of golf carts. Robinson is also critical of the coastal city’s rules dictating where visitors can and cannot park their cars, which he said has exasperated “a parking nightmare.”
Though Titsworth vehemently disagrees, Robinson believes the policies are deliberately enacted to make the island prohibitively exclusive to its residents while unwelcoming to visitors from other parts of the county and state.
“I don’t want to paint this by a broad brush, but there are some in the government of Holmes Beach and maybe in other governments on the island that don’t want visitors out there—that believe it’s their private island,” he said. “I am concerned by the—forget about the parking, the parking is a huge issue—but other regulatory issues that, I think, bit by bit, discourage people from making that trek."
As a result, he asked the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA), a research arm of the state legislature, to study the island’s government structure and what it might look like to dissolve the three cities and either combine them into one city or into the nearby City of Bradenton.
Though he said he needs to see the study’s findings and talk to constituents before making up his mind, Robinson thinks changing the island’s government could not only control over-regulation but also save money by eliminating duplicate, or even triplicate, city services between the three cities.
“Why do we have three police departments? Why do we have three building departments? Why do we have three public works departments? Is that really necessary in a seven-mile stretch?” Robinson said. “[The study is] all about making the island stronger and more efficient to lower taxes."
The study, however, worries Titsworth because she believes there is an ulterior motive.
If her city and its rules are dissolved, her nightmare is that huge condos will be erected, and the island will become a developer’s paradise.
“Can you tell people here that that is not the case?” ABC Action News asked Robinson.
“That is not my intent at all,” he said.
Robinson said he would not support any plan that strips the island of its regulations limiting building height.
“I love Miami Beach, but that’s not Anna Maria. That should never be Anna Maria,” he said, in part. “We have to find balance. The last thing that we should be doing is putting up 20-story condominium complexes because that does not fit the character of the island, and that would be nothing that I would want to see happen.”
By Friday, the three island governments must submit a plethora of documents to the group conducting the study, and the study itself will likely take months to complete.
Robinson anticipates receiving the completed report in the summer of 2024. Any changes made to the island’s governance would be proposed in the legislative session in 2025, he said.
Meanwhile, Titsworth said Holmes Beach will resist any change that she and her constituents believe would harm the island’s charm.
“I’m not too upset about losing my role with Holmes Beach. I’m more concerned about losing Holmes Beach. It was named after my grandfather. He was one of the early settlers who had a vision for this city, and he made it an amazing place,” she said. "It would be hard for me to lose it under my watch.”
Sipping her cold beer as she watched the sun set below the horizon on the beautiful but typical Anna Maria Island day, Keyes offered her thoughts on the potential for change.
“I think just leaving it how it is would be the best,” she said. “You know, I’d hate to lose this peacefulness here.”
Whatever is decided, she said preserving the island’s unique charm must be the priority.
