By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            An ordinance making it legal to drive golf carts on designated Williston city streets, and a related golf cart parking ordinance, have been given preliminary approval by the city council, but the city also hopes it can secure permission for golf carts to cross state and federal highways.

            The two ordinances passed on a 4-1 vote at the March 21 board meeting with Councilman Elihu Ross opposed to the new laws, saying he had a number of concerns, among them whether golf carts could safely travel on city streets without people getting hurt in accidents.

            “I think it presents a lot of problems and issues that come up, not to mention accidents and issues which we always hate to see. We do the best we can, so my vote is going to be no,” he said before the council took separate votes on two ordinances.

            The ordinances will come back to the council for a second and final reading in two weeks. If the ordinances get council approval, the city’s engineering consultant, Wright-Pierce, will survey all city streets and determine which ones would be eligible to carry signs allowing golf cart traffic. The signs would take about two months to arrive from the manufacturer. Until they are marked with golf cart signs, the vehicles can’t be driven on those streets.

             Engineer Walt Nickel, senior project manager with Wright-Pierce, said he believes there are opportunities for the city to work with the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) on allowing golf cart crossings on state routes. He believes at least two of the city’s state highways might be eligible for golf cart crossings.

            State Road 121, U.S. 41, and U.S. 27 pass through Williston. If none of the highways could be crossed by golf carts, it would mean drivers could travel with their golf carts only on city streets marked with the appropriate signs. Drivers wouldn’t be able to go much beyond the neighborhood quadrants in which they live.

            Chiefland City Commissioners ran into the same issue when they were preparing to adopt their golf cart ordinance. They asked the Florida Department of Transportation whether golf carts could be allowed to cross U.S. 129, U.S. 27A, or U.S. 19 and DOT issued a flat “no.” Some golf cart drivers were already crossing U.S. 19 and U.S. 129. They have stopped.

            Nickel said there are ways to work with DOT on developing golf cart crossings that meet the agency’s requirements.

            “There are provisions in DOT’s code and sign code where a golf cart can cross a state route. We have two of the three (highways) we think we can cross,” he said. “There are problems as we go east on U.S. 27 near the railroad track but there are provisions with some improvements we can do.”

            He mentioned the possibility of marking a wider sidewalk across the highway that would parallel the railroad tracks.

            “We can open up these quadrants. There are options out there. Whether we can open up all the crossings on the state routes in Williston…but we see there are opportunities for that to happen. But we have to work with them (DOT), so there are those opportunities,” Nickel said.

            The ordinance that would allow golf carts to operate on city streets came under the most intense scrutiny at the March 21 board meeting. The proposed law says only golf cart drivers with a valid Florida license can drive golf carts on city streets, but a second paragraph said no person under the age of 14 could operate a golf cart on a designated street. Council President Debra Jones and Vice President Marguerite Robinson felt the wording could lead to confusion. They said teenagers who are 14 can’t be licensed to drive a car or a truck. A 15-year-old can only get a restricted driver’s license.

            City Attorney Kiersten Ballou said the wording of the ordinance was intended to provide an extra layer of legal protection for the city but she agreed to a suggestion from an audience member to merge the two sentences into one paragraph. The first sentence will say that only persons with a valid Florida license can operate a golf cart on designated city streets. The second sentence in the same graph will say no person under the age of 14 can operate a golf cart on designated streets in Williston.

            Ballou said the first sentence requiring a valid driver’s license to operate a golf cart on designated streets in Williston makes it abundantly clear what is and isn’t allowed in the city, and it adheres to state law. She said the second sentence also tracks state law, but she agreed to merge the two sentences into one paragraph at the request of Jones and Robinson for the sake of clarity.

            The golf cart parking ordinance started out as one version and wound up as another. Nickel said they originally envisioned the parking ordinance as a way to do safety inspections on carts. He said that was the “grand vision,” but state law doesn’t allow it.

            A second version of the ordinance – and the one that was adopted – requires golf cart owners to get an annual golf cart parking permit.  The ordinance would allow the city police department to give a voluntary safety inspection on the golf cart and perhaps educate the golf cart owners on the safe operation of their vehicles on city streets, according to Nickel.

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City of Williston Regular Meeting March 21, 2023; Posted March 25, 2023