Proposal would allow golf carts in some neighborhoods

SUFFOLK

Ron Trimyer, 51, bought a golf cart last month to drive around his Chatham Woods neighborhood.

"It's really fun just driving around, just putt-putting and looking at everything," he said.

There's only one problem. Golf carts aren't legal on public streets in the city, despite an assurance that Trimyer said he got from a police officer before he bought his cart.

That could change soon. City staff members are drafting a proposal for the City Council to allow motorized carts in some neighborhoods.

Councilman Joe Barlow said the police department considered the issue a couple of years ago under former Chief William Freeman but rejected it as unsafe. Barlow said he raised the matter again with new Police Chief Thomas E. Bennett, who took over this year, and Bennett was more receptive.

"The new police chief is aware that they have done it in other places, and so he's looking into it with a committee and trying draw up the specifications that would apply," Barlow said.

The plan is to let communities apply for the right to use golf carts and have the city review their request under established criteria.

"All communities are not conducive to it," Barlow said. "If you've got a thoroughfare running through the middle of it, of course you can't do it there."

Barlow, who represents the Chuckatuck Borough, said people in the Crittendon and Eclipse communities were the first to bring the request to his attention.

Ricky Johnson, the owner of a custom golf cart business at 1830 Holland Rd., said about a quarter of his sales go to Suffolk customers. He started Ricky's Custom Carts in 2006.

"They're getting more and more popular," he said.

Some residents probably don't realize they're not supposed to take golf carts on public roads. Trimyer, who has at least a couple of neighbors with carts, said an officer told him it was OK as long as he didn't drive recklessly. He learned later, while asking for the ordinance, that it wasn't, but by then he had already bought a $4,000 cart as a present from his wife.

Not that the police are looking to ticket golf cart scofflaws. Trimyer said he's waved at officers from his ride, and they haven't seemed to mind. Still, he'd like the city to officially allow carts in certain areas, and he has lobbied the City Council to do so.

Barlow said he expects staff to present a report on a proposed ordinance in late December or in January.

State law allows localities to allow golf carts on designated public highways, but it sets some restrictions. Among the limitations: the posted speed limit must be 25 mph or lower, drivers must have a valid driver's license and the carts must have lights for use at night.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com