Proposed Sarasota Access

[Kiteboarding Tampa Bay]

I am reposting this in an effort to bring more attention to this problem, as its only gotten 50 views and 0 replies in the SW Fla. section.

The City Commission has proposed kiteboarding restrictions off the Public Beach. On the surface, these restrictions "may or may not" be all that different from guidelines we discussed for the area almost ten years ago. The devil is in the details however and local kiting interests will want to be involved in discussions ideally before and during the public hearing on June 23.

Complete newspaper article about restrictions at:
http://www.pelicanpress.org/content/2096_1.php
__________________
FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi
________________________________
Sarasota kiters need everyone's help to avoid excessive regulation, and are up against this:
However, parasailing and kite-surfing were another matter. "Kite-surfing is a very, very dangerous sport," said Commissioner Jon Thaxton. "Not only for the participant but for anybody who gets in the way."
The commissioner obviously is misinformed about kiting, making untrue statements, and generally lumping kiters into the same category as Parasailing.
Whomever (if anyone) is heading up this effort, please contact me as I would like to help however possible.
Steve Sadler (813) 389-3683
www.kiteboardingtampabay.com
www.actionsportsfoundation.org

[Water Monkey]

I have never kited Sarasota and don't know any kiters from there but this seems like a very urgent issue. When the county is misinformed and putting kiting in the same category as parasailing this is a problem. Hopefully some of the Sarasota crew can spearhead this effort in an appropriate manner. Not good for any beach to ever have too much regulation. First Sarasota then St. Pete Beach.

[ricki]

A few folks are working on it over there. Seems plover concerns may be involved. Information is still coming out. There is to be a public hearing June 26 when a show of kiter numbers might help. In the meantime, low key discussions with folks in the community over there are going on. Should know more soon. May need to marshal some support in numbers or with luck, there may be no net change in how kiting should be conducted there from what was set up ten years ago.

[Kiteboarding Tampa Bay]

Its good to hear that someone is working on it. Since everybody has their poker faces on around here, its kinda hard to tell.
Most of the Sarasota crew and instructors that I know are very safe and courteous and well deserving of support.
If there are any pre-meetings or "petitions" to sign, please let us know.

[conchxpress]

The local news had a story about the Sarasota beach access restriction for all beach goers because of the nesting Plovers. A few nests were destroyed,by beach goers, and the Audubon Society and local wildlife groups were all involved getting actual access to the beach restricted to protect the 10 birds that are nesting there. There are only supposed to be 100 of these birds in Florida.

[rpexj]

Thank you guys for the rally cry!

Don't mistake our lack of posts lack of action. We are quickly spreading the word to the Sarasota kiteboarding community and trying hard to get everyone involved.

At this point we are still defining the problem and what needs to be done. We just acquired the actual proposed changes and it doesn't look good:

90-33 (a)(18) Towing or manipulating any person attached to any flying device or parachute below an altitude of five hundred (500) above the land and/or within 500 feet off a Beach waterline where one exists. Further, it shall be unlawful for any person to operate, engage in, be a passenger in or control any flying device carrying a person or persons below an altitude of five hundred (500) above the land and/or within 500 feet of a Beach waterline where one exists. Exceptions will be made to this prohibition for handheld kites not attached to a person and by County authorized permit. It should be noted that handheld kites have been documented to flush nesting shorebirds. For this reason, the Board may wish to consider setback limitations for handheld kites from posted shorebird nests during the nesting season (February 1st through August 31st). Staff if consulting with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) staff to determine what setback recommendation, if any, they may have.

Here is a link to the actual info:

http://edmsweb01w.scgov.net/sirepub/...doctype=AGENDA

We are putting together a meeting to get everyone on the same page sometime this week.

Thank you guys for your support and keep the ideas coming about how to fight this.

Regards,

Rich Peck
888-Kit-Srf-1

rich@kiteboardingsarasota.com

www.kiteboardingsarasota.com

[ricki]

This was posted under the SW Florida Forum last night. As Joe has detailed, it doesn't look good for kiting. Thing is like recent steps undertaken in OBX it seems to impact more than kiteboarders. That may be a resource we can call upon in building resistance to the restrictions as currently proposed. There aren't that many kiteboarders in Sarasota County. Still reading through the documents but I suspect there are quite a few more impacted parties. For instance, with the "redefinition" of private beaches as public to help make regulation and enforcement as simple as possible, what are folks that invested very substantial money in beach front property being forced to give up after the fact? They are going after parasailing and powered paragliders, who else is impacted by this? That is an important list to assemble. Get all theses folks with something to lose alerted and pulling together as much as feasible to help out the situation.

I hope that kiting interests, as few as our numbers are in Sarasota County, combine efforts to spearhead resistance and steps to work out a more acceptable situation. A unified, effective fighting front is what is needed. I hope the shops in Sarasota, Island Style, Kiteboarding Sarasota and Waterman Kites and any other schools throw their combined efforts against this serious problem. The county has moved out at speed for sometime on this from appearances. We now need to play catchup as best we can. There is the public hearing on June 26 but waiting until then to act and respond is likely a mistake. Ideally we should come to the meeting in strength, with counter proposals, legal input if we can find it in hand, with the support and presence of other impacted parties to make the best pitch for negotiation of viable alternatives that we can.

Originally Posted by RickI

Information is still being developed, however solely thanks to Joe's efforts and to Marc for letting us know about this in the first place, some insights into complaints and proposed restrictions contemplated by Sarasota County have been found. Proposed ordinances carry major impacts on not only residents but also visitors in pursuing some beach activities. These changes appear to be motivated over concerns regarding protected birds. Some excerpts appear below. There are extensive documents that warrant careful review and comment. The following has been posted after only rapid cursory scanning of part of the documents.

"The definition of “Beach” should not be changed to distinguish “private” versus “public”
beaches. To do so would create significant enforcement problems and may tend to
undercut whatever rights have accrued under Florida law (e.g., prescriptive and customary rights). Mean high water lines are only officially established via a survey. A true mean high water line survey involves data collected over an 18.6 year metonic cycle. It would be impractical to have SSO enforcement staff use a surveyed line in order to enforce provisions of the Code."

"It is staff’s recommendation that the “Beach” areas be treated comprehensively as a shared and migrating public and private resource without separate rules for the protection of safety and resources."

COMMENT: The apparent intent of this language is to REMOVE privileges customarily and historically afforded to residents and to visitors in "customary" private beach areas to increase ease of enforcement for the entirely of the coastline of Sarasota County.


"In addition, staff’s observations of kiteboarding on beaches where people recreate has noted some concerns, including collisions between the fast moving boards and beachgoers, entanglement in the lines, and destruction of dune vegetation. Further, the sails and associated shadows from the kiteboard kites, parachutes and parasails will often flush protected shorebirds form their well camouflaged ground nests and nesting habitat, leaving their eggs and chicks unprotected and easily depredated by natural and introduced avian and land predators (e.g., crows, crabs, raccoons). For this reason, staff is
proposing a new prohibition be added to the Sec 90-33(a) of the draft Code as follows:
90-33 (a)(18) Towing or manipulating any person attached to any flying device or
parachute below an altitude of five hundred (500) above the land and/or within 500
feet off a Beach waterline where one exists. Further, it shall be unlawful for any
person to operate, engage in, be a passenger in or control any flying device carrying
a person or persons below an altitude of five hundred (500) above the land and/or
within 500 feet of a Beach waterline where one exists. Exceptions will be made to
this prohibition for handheld kites not attached to a person and by County
authorized permit.

It should be noted that handheld kites have been documented to flush nesting shorebirds. For this reason, the Board may wish to consider setback limitations for handheld kites from posted shorebird nests during the nesting season (February 1st through August 31st). Staff if consulting with FloridaFish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) staff to determine what setback recommendation, if any, they may have."

COMMENT: The apparent intent of this language is to ban kiteboarding, parasailing, paragliding within 500 ft. of shore and of the surface for the entire length of the Sarasota County shoreline. That looks close to be 40 miles of coastline.


This information and the other documents are located at:
http://edmsweb01w.scgov.net/sirepub/...doctype=AGENDA

Under item #34, in the pdf files that appear on the right side of the page. (THANKS again Joe for the document links/contact and to Marc for giving us an heads up on this situation in the first place!)

This is appears to be an extensively researched and orchestrated attempt to curtail beach privileges. Obviously, considerable legal and public resources have been employed in the drafting of these documents over time. As lay people we can do our best to read and comprehend these documents but there comes a point when legal input would be advantageous. I think we may be at that point even though this just came to light.

If anyone knows a kiteboarding attorney or attorney who would be inclined to assist us in this matter, please pass their information along. I not familiar with another instance in which customary beaches were in effect declared in effect "public" for an ENTIRE county for something like this. In several other cases that come to mind, I believe it was concluded it couldn't be done. In this case, who knows?

I understand local kiting interests are getting organized at this time, more to come on this soon. We may well need a show of numbers, through a letter campaign, petition, appearance at the public hearing on June 26, 2010 or through other means. In the meantime, intelligent, ideally legal input on what is being proposed and viable counter positions for the public including kiteboarders would be most welcome.



That is a lot of coastline to be subject to such restrictions. Surely, something more even handed can be worked out to both protect threatened birds and maintain privileges of residents and visitors at large. The restrictions, what appears to be a kiteboarding ban may extend to 40 miles of coastline?

[ricki]

The birds are protected by Federal and State laws. They are more vulnerable during nesting season which is for a finite period of time in suitable habitat areas. Identifying key habitat as has been attempted in the past with the roped off areas. I understand they nest between March and August with peak periods during that interval. Keeping kiter foot traffic away from and kites from overflying these roped off areas which should be near the base of dunes from the reference below, seems doable. After all, aren't the dunes set pretty far back from the water as a rule? The major threat is far from kiters but involves natural predators, dogs, trampling by foot traffic and cars, development losss of habitat, high tides and storm events, beach erosion and a great deal more not involving kites. It seems like we've been lumped into the 40 mile ban because ... I have no idea why. Our activities can be regulated like everyone else's with those regulations hopefully being reasonable and based on good science and resource management concepts.

Looking at a 2006 reference on the plovers, http://www.flshorebirdalliance.org/p...NPL_Report.pdf

"9. It will be essential to accurately determine depredation levels, and to identify the types of predators that might be influencing nest success and recruitment at various sites. Raccoons, coyotes, and ghost crabs were notable snowy plover nest predators, as evidenced by the frequency of tracks observed around depredated nests. In addition, fish crows and laughing gulls were observed taking snowy plover eggs (R. Pruner pers. obs.) and chicks (B. Eells pers. comm.). Management actions taken to improve reproductive success should coincide with the type of predator and disturbance pressures present at each site. For example, exclosures are only effective with medium to large-sized mammals, or with avian predators (Mabee and Estelle 2000). Nest exclosures are not a means of preserving biological diversity over time, but rather as a site-specific tool for temporarily increasing nest success, while more substantial large-scale/long-term conservation plans are developed (Johnson and Oring 2002). Predator control programs should also be considered at select sites to enhance breeding success of snowy plovers."

"10. Human disturbance due to development and increased recreational pressure continue to be of concern. These two factors are the most difficult to control, and create the most permanent impact on the habitat. The impact of recreational pressures should be minimized by protecting areas of snowy plover habitat, and by concentrating human activities away from preferred nesting areas. Depending on the proximity and type of human activity (i.e. walking, running, fishing, dogwalking), shorebirds may respond by spending more time watching the potential human threat (Burger and Gochfeld 1991), than by walking or flushing to undisturbed areas. Furthermore, human disturbance can cause declines in habitat use, and can affect the hatch rates of snowy plovers. Human disturbance on publicly owned beaches is of great concern because the majority of breeding snowy plovers are now concentrated on these sites. In addition, snowy plovers that utilize barrier islands are also prone to high levels of disturbance by humans accessing the islands by boat. Nesting areas with high human impact should be roped off and/or posted against trespass prior to the start of the breeding season. Disturbance rates may fall dramatically following posting and roping around large nesting areas (Lafferty et al. 2006). In addition, minimizing development at the few remaining nesting areas on private lands should be encouraged."

[Gator Gris]

We Sarasota Kiters cannot figure out who has an ax to grind against us. We really don't have any kooks or bad apples. We always stay outside the buoys when we do a down-winder.

I am trying to gather the facts and then contact the appropriate county commissioners. This is a small town.

Gris Bettle

[Steve-O]

A few weeks ago, I was at Caladesi State Park. I was getting lunch with the family and they wouldn't give me a straw. Bad for the animals they said.

I respectfully accepted it and said...."I get that and respect that, but isn't there millions of gallons of oil spilling in the Gulf of Mexico?"

My point being, we as a society will regulate ourselves to death over the environment with things that are within our control, but where the real regulation needs to take place.....well sound the crickets cuz it just aint gonna happen in my lifetime.

I am really disgusted with our country and they way it treats its citizens and the environment.

So yeah, let's ban the kites to save the birds, but take about 50 years to figure out how to drill oil in the Gulf safely. Oh wait, that's impossible.

End Rant!!!!