Delray Beach commissioners OKs Segway ordinances

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — Segway Tours of Delray Beach is now legal.

Delray Beach city commissioners Tuesday evening approved ordinances allowing Segway tour operators to do business in the city along while adopting a set of rules to govern them. Despite a request from Mike Listick, the attorney representing Segway Tours, the two-wheeled electric vehicles are banned from the sidewalk on the beach side of A1A.

Segway Tours actually opened for business in the fall, and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with city officials and representatives of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce. Segway Tours, however, couldn’t get a business license to operate because segway tours were not permitted under the city code.

The ordinances approved Tuesday restricts Segways to portions of the west sidewalk along A1A and bans them entirely along Atlantic Avenue through the downtown. It also requires tour operators to give customers at least 15 minutes of training before allowing them to ride the devices through the city. Tour goers also must wear green vests to make them more visible to motorists and must travel in a single file with traffic.

Listick, who had worked with city staff in drafting the ordinances, said his client agreed with everything in the ordinance except the A1A restrictions. He said Segways should be allowed to operate on the sidewalk on the north end of the city beach. The walk there is twice the normal width and pedestrian traffic is lighter.

“We’re fighting for the north end,” Listick said. “The beach is what we show off.”

Listick lost the fight, as commissioners countered that Segways and pedestrians don’t mix very well. Commissioner Adam Frankel said the devices are “an accident waiting to happen,” but agreed they should be allowed as long as the city takes steps to make them as safe as possible.

Also Tuesday, commissioners overturned a city administrative order that would have forced a 30-year-old auto salvage yard/metal recycling business to close its doors, alleging that zoning laws prohibited the metal recycling business on the site, which sits off Congress Avenue south of Atlantic. Attorney Jeffrey Lynne, however, said the two types of businesses essentially are indistinguishable from the other, and that the owner, Frank Arnone, had been doing both seemingly with the city’s blessings for more than 30 years.

Commissioners also couldn’t see a distinction between the two businesses and overturned the administration order.

Newly seated Commissioner Tom Carney allowed that there might be one, and that the city code probably was right in separating the two. However, he added, “I’m not prepared to shut him down.”

One spectator told commissioners during the public hearing that the city not only should overturn the administrative order, it should pay Arnone’s attorney fees.

Arnone choked with emotion.

“Thank you! God bless you! Thank you so much!” Arnone told the commissioners after the vote.

Said Mayor Woodie McDuffie after the vote: “I’ve heard people say this is a thankless job. They’re wrong.”

Commissioners approved a zoning change that allows Presidential Auto Leasing and Sales on South Federal Highway to use an adjacent parcel as a parking lot. City Planning and Zoning Director Paul Dorling had recommended against the change, saying it would intrude on an adjoining residential neighborhood.

However, attorney Listick, representing Presidential Auto, noted that the property is bordered on three sides by other parking lots, and would act more as a buffer for the neighborhood rather than a nuisance.

“This is just not a big deal,” Listick said. “It does not change the complexion of the neighborhood.”

Kelli Freeman, a representative of the Tropic Isles Homeowners Association, agreed with Listick’s assessment and said Presidential Auto has been a good neighbor.

In other business, commissioners:

— Received a check for $35,465 from the Beach Property Owners Association for the construction of a new pavilion at the intersection of A1A and Atlantic Avenue. The new pavilion is the centerpiece of a new master plan for the beach. The BPOA said it’s also received about $15,000 more in free architectural and engineering services for the project.

— Received a donation of $22,000 from the Delaire Country Club for the city police and fire departments. A spokesman said the country club has raised $700,000 for the two departments over the past 22 years. The money has been used to buy equipment the city otherwise could not afford, including thermal imaging devices and jaws of life for the fire department, bulletproof vests and night vision goggles for the police department.

— Approved a request from Champagne Wishes Investments, 900 East Atlantic Avenue, unit 17, to buy one “in lieu of” parking space from the city at a cost of $18,200 to cover parking needs for Ocean Optics, which is moving its business to the site. An in lieu of space is essentially a fee businesses pay to help the city cover costs of providing public parking in the downtown.

— Awarded a contract to manage the city parking garages to Ameristar Parking Solutions at a cost of $87,913.80. Ameristar was the third lowest bidder, but city Parking Management Specialist Scott Aronson said the firm was chosen because of its experience with the city and the quality of its work.

— Approved a series of ordinances allowing nursing homes and other “licensed residential uses” to open in certain zones where they previously had been banned. The change brings the city code in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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