By CRAIG GARRETT Staff Writer Jan 17, 2021
https://www.yoursun.com/northport/news/golf-cart-rules-in-west-villages-explained-at-wednesday-meeting/
NORTH PORT — Rules of the road get discussed Wednesday at the West Villages.
But not for motorists. Rather, this discussion focuses on golf cart operators, particularly kids and their parents. Neighbors had complained that children and teens on golf carts within the West Villages had been sometimes reckless, were often underage.
Others are confused about which type of golf cart is allowed where, including operators crisscrossing Tamiami Trail at the busy West Villages Parkway intersection.
North Port police, the town’s mayor and others will log into a Wednesday Zoom meeting to explain precise rules for operating a golf cart and how to modify one to make it street legal. Citywide laws get explained, as well, specifically in the West Villages, where buyers are sold the idea that golf carts are accepted transportation. But the rules were sometimes enforced, sometimes not.
Wednesday’s meeting will clear the air.
“We’re looking at this (meeting) as a safety issue. Get the information … and know,” said William Crosley, district manager for the West Villages Improvement District, the governing body within that sprawling series of neighborhoods and communities.
North Port in the last year had tweaked its golf cart rules. Some owners that included police and public officials, in fact, had plied local streets on the vehicles, some out of compliance with safety rules or with underage operators at the wheel.
North Port police interpreted the rules as not allowing basic golf carts on streets, the ones designed to haul a couple of guys and their clubs down 300-yard fairways.
Everything else was fair game, though. You could, for instance, operate modified golf carts with state-approved upgrades such as lighting, turn signals, licenses, seat belts and insurance.
And one odd rule was that a North Port golf cart dealer couldn’t rent his products. In the backdrop of all of this, some North Port retail centers had been built with designated golf cart parking spots, meaning the carts had to somehow get there.
Operating rules to reflect Florida laws were introduced. A final reading of new North Port standards is pending.
Wednesday’s virtual meeting is to explain the rules and to provide options for upgrading a golf cart. It is open to the public at westvillagesid.org.
Some in West Villages had reported kids on golf carts acting recklessly, some well under age 14, the legal limit for a regular golf cart. That and explaining the rules prompted Wednesday’s meeting, said Jill Luke, North Port’s mayor.
“Rules (for years) were not enforced,” she said. “Now there’s so much activity, this has come up.”
West Villager and golf cart owner John Meisel said kids sometimes scorn driving rules, pull one another on skateboards, race around and act … like children.
“Is it my place to police parents? No,” he said. “But most people are pretty good about it.”
Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate
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