Destin comes full circle and reinstates ban on golf carts

Destin residents who dreamed of legally driving their golf carts on Destin streets have had their hopes dashed again by Destin City Council.

Two weeks ago in a 4-3 vote, the council directed city staff to design a pilot program allowing the public to drive golf carts on selected streets south of U.S. 98. The program, if adopted, would have reversed the council’s 2006 decision banning golf carts unless they were modified into low-speed vehicles (LSVs) with license plates, headlights, seat belts and rear-view mirrors.

Monday, the council voted 6-1 to take back that July 9 vote, putting golf carts back on the forbidden list.

“I have been doing a lot of soul-searching over the last two weeks,” Councilor Jim Wood said. “I have some issues with the vote I made ... I feel like I made a mistake.

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Reporter Fraser Sherman offers live updates from City Hall during Monday's council meeting. Click on http://frasersmind.freedomblogging.com/ for a play by play of the meeting and join the discussion.

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Wood said that allowing both golf carts and low-speed vehicles would confuse the public and the police, so it made more sense to allow LSVs and ban carts.

Councilor Tom Weidenhamer said that while LSVs are legal on any road where the speed is 35 mph or less, the council would have to designate specific streets as golf-cart usable. He said that would confuse everyone as to where the carts were legal.

Homeowner Anastas Pazevic said drivers already used golf carts to cross U.S. 98 from Holiday Isle to Target, even though Florida law makes carts illegal on the highway.

“What happened to walking?” Pazevic asked. “We are becoming a nation of obese fat people that cannot walk 200 to 300 yards from their homes … If I could vote, I would vote it down.”

Councilor Jim Bagby said that regardless of city policy, golf carts have been in use south of U.S. 98 for years, so allowing them with restrictions — the pilot program would have required anyone driving them to have a driver’s license, for instance — made more sense than passing a ban that would be ignored.

“75 percent of this town wonders why we’ve spent more than 5 minutes talking about (carts),” Bagby said. “The 25 percent who live on Holiday Isle and Crystal Beach know very well.”

Bagby said there hadn’t been any confusion before the city’s 2006 decision allowing only LSVs on the roads. As a libertarian, he said, he believed in reducing regulation rather than increasing it, and that the examples some residents presented of reckless golf-cart driving would have been just as dreadful if the drivers had been in pickup trucks or cars.

Councilor Dewey Destin said the issue was more than safety because golf carts reduced the use of oil and encouraged energy independence. The councilor said the July 9 vote apparently hadn’t done what he thought it had, so he proposed staff draft a pilot program and bring it back to council.

The motion failed 2-5, with Bagby and Destin voting yes.

The council then voted 6-1 to rescind the July 9 pilot program vote, with Bagby the only no vote. Councilors Destin and Weidenhamer, who previously voted for the pilot program, joined Wood in reversing course.

Monday’s vote restores the city’s previous policy that golf carts are illegal to drive on streets or sidewalks in Destin.