After decades of discord, signs of a thaw

BELLEAIR SHORE — The olive branch the town’s vice mayor extended this week to neighboring Belleair Beach might already be taking root.

Belleair Shore may remove locks from three beachfront access gates and revisit its restrictions on umbrellas as the town looks for ways to ease a decades-long feud with the city.

Vice Mayor Daniel Storie said the Town Commission is scheduled to discuss both issues at its Oct. 20 meeting, following his Oct. 5 appearance before the Belleair Beach City Council calling for the two communities to start working together again.

In an unusually candid interview with The Pinellas Current, Storie discussed the disputes at length — a rare departure from the normal reticence of officials in this wealthy residential enclave of 55 Gulf-front homes.

Storie said he wanted to revive discussions that had stalled despite earlier progress between the municipalities, but also felt the town's perspective had been lacking from the public debate.

“I just feel like there's a lot of facts missing,” he said. “There's a lot of things that aren't being said.”

The communities have sparred intermittently for more than 30 years over three gated lots in Belleair Shore that Belleair Beach residents have deeded rights to use for beach access. More recently, the disputes have included restrictions on umbrellas and Belleair Shore's effort to eliminate a state erosion control line along its shoreline.

“I just thought, you know what, let me show up and just try again,” said Storie, who made a similar appearance to Belleair Beach a year ago. “Just trying to open the lines of communication back up.”

Whether the latest effort amounts to a breakthrough or, as in years past, more talk remains to be seen.

Unlocking the gates

Storie said he believes at least one issue has a relatively simple solution: Take the bike locks off the gates.

The gates are supposed to be closed at night to prevent vehicles from entering the lots and reopened in the morning. Storie acknowledged there have been occasions when Pinellas County sheriff's deputies have forgotten or been late to open or close the gates.

“That’s not malicious,” he said. “That’s not Belleair Shore saying, ‘Do that on purpose.’ So how do we correct that? We remove the locks.”

Without the locks, Storie said, the gates still could be pulled shut at night to block vehicles, but pedestrians could open them and walk through at any hour.

Storie said the locks were a holdover from the aftermath of the 2024 hurricanes, when beach accesses were closed because of storm damage and safety concerns.

Longer term, Storie said he still favors installing automatic vehicle gates that would open and close on a timer, along with separate pedestrian gates that would remain accessible around the clock.

Belleair Shore previously discussed that proposal with Belleair Beach and obtained cost estimates, he said, but the governments did not reach an agreement on sharing the expense.

Storie said he would like Belleair Shore to move ahead with automatic gates even if Belleair Beach does not participate.

The Town Commission also is expected to resume discussion of umbrellas at the access lots, another recurring source of friction.

Former Belleair Beach Mayor Joseph Manzo, an attorney, previously sued Belleair Shore for its restrictions on umbrellas and other “temporary shade structures” and has threatened another lawsuit.

Storie said the issue should be solvable without another court fight. He questioned the need for further litigation, saying the town had already agreed following Manzo's earlier lawsuit to allow umbrellas at the access lots. Signs posted at the lots, however, continue to prohibit “tents or shade structures.”

Restarting negotiations

The outreach also could revive negotiations over the long-stalled interlocal agreement governing the three access lots.

Storie said he and Belleair Beach Mayor Dave Gattis had been making progress on a new agreement before talks broke down. The discussions included meetings between the two officials as well as a virtual meeting involving attorneys for both municipalities.

Belleair Shore eventually sent Belleair Beach a proposed agreement but never received a counterproposal, Storie said. He said he asked Town Attorney Daniel Lewis to revisit the proposal and reach back out to Belleair Beach City Attorney Thomas Trask.

“Let's dust it off, let's look at it again, let's take another look and let's send it back over through our legal counsel, through Attorney Trask,” Storie said. “Let's put the ball firmly back in their court again and let's just see if we can't get discussions going.”

Gattis is stepping down as mayor in November, but Storie said he doesn't necessarily see that as a setback to negotiations.

Storie said Gattis has faced personal attacks during the dispute and suggested leaving office could actually put him in a better position to help bridge the divide.

The two have disagreed on numerous issues, Storie said, but were still able to negotiate.

“We could find common ground,” he said. “We could both make concessions and we could both communicate.”

Gattis previously told The Pinellas Current that he would be willing to continue participating in negotiations after leaving office if both municipalities wanted him involved.

“I'm absolutely fine with that,” Storie said. “And I'm willing to work with anybody.”

Storie attributed much of the breakdown in negotiations to turmoil within the Belleair Beach City Council and repeated confrontations involving Manzo and Councilmember Frank Bankard.

“They had a tremendous amount of struggle on their side, and all communication broke down between Belleair Beach and Belleair Shore,” Storie said.

The ECL fight continues

One dispute appears unlikely to be resolved at the negotiating table, though.

Belleair Shore is challenging the erosion control line, or ECL, established along its shoreline in 1997 as part of the Sand Key beach renourishment project. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection rejected the town's request to cancel the portion within its borders, and the town is appealing.

Asked whether Belleair Shore was prepared to pursue the case as far as the Florida Supreme Court, Storie suggested it was.

“I think it's going to be all the way through because it shouldn't be there,” he said.

Storie contends historical records show Belleair Shore was never supposed to be included in the renourishment project and that the town never received the beach renourishment that accompanied the ECL.

As for why the town waited nearly 30 years to challenge the ECL, Storie said he was unaware of its history until disputes over beach access prompted him to research it. He said that research convinced him Belleair Shore had been included in the ECL in error.

The ECL is roughly 90 to 100 feet seaward of his property’s seawall, meaning its removal would make little difference to his own property rights. Storie said.

“For the most part, my property runs into the water either way and it doesn't change things,” said Storie, who lives on the south end of town, near Indian Rocks Beach. “But there are people on the north end where I think it does make a difference.”

He also disputed arguments that removing the line would take away Belleair Beach residents' ability to use the shoreline, saying their access rights come from the three deeded beachfront lots.

“If the ECL is removed in those accesses, that means those accesses extend into the Gulf as well,” he said. “So, to me, it would extend the rights of Belleair Beach residents.”

Regardless of what happens with the ECL challenge, Storie said the two municipalities will still have to deal with each other.

“If the ECL stays and they don't remove it, at the end of the day, we're exactly back where we were pre-us petitioning to remove the ECL,” he said. “We're still left fighting over the same things.”

The public clashes between officials and a small group of residents give a misleading impression of relations between the two communities, Storie said.

He said most Belleair Beach residents he encounters along the shoreline are friendly and that the bitter exchanges heard at government meetings aren't representative of real-world interactions.

“It paints the two communities like there's a lot of hate that you would see in everyday life,” Storie said. “And I just don't see it.”