If you’ve ever kicked your feet up and cracked open a beer on Lido Key’s beaches, it turns out your relaxing day in the sand was actually against the law.
It’s nearly impossible to know that, though, because there aren’t any signs saying as much and there’s very little, if any, enforcement of the City of Sarasota’s alcohol laws there.
Now, city attorney Robert Fournier hopes to set the record straight by amending the city’s open-container rules to fix a confusing technicality and expressly permit alcohol on city beaches.
The change will be considered by the Sarasota City Commission tonight and would bring Lido Key beaches in line with the county open container rules that permit alcohol, but prohibit glass bottles, on most of the rest of the area’s beaches.
“On those hot days, people reach for a cold one, but that’s technically against the law right now,” Fournier said, with a laugh. “It’s not often enforced, unless someone is really being a public nuisance, and there are largely no complaints. So we feel it just makes sense to clear up these rules and bring the (Lido) beaches in line with the rules throughout the rest of the county.”
The root of the issue goes back many years to two, dueling city codes that outline conflicting rules on whether alcohol is permitted in any public city parks, including the beaches.
For a long time, city rules were that alcohol would not be allowed in parks posted with signs prohibiting it, Fournier said. Then about 20 years ago, city leaders amended another rule to prohibit alcohol in any public space or park, with or without a sign, he said.
Although that change technically applied to Lido Key beaches, it went largely ignored by visitors and residents without any complaints, Fournier said.
Last month, the City Commission voted to delete the old rule about signs to clarify the law and agreed to amend the ordinance further to match the Lido open container rules with the rest of the county.