City to review new policy on horse-drawn carriages

KEMAH — A request for parking spaces by Kemah’s first and only operator of horse-drawn carriages has prompted city officials into considering drafting an ordinance dealing with the four-legged mode of transportation.

The city does not have any rules about horse-drawn carriages, City Administrator Rick Beverlin said. He said he thought it had been using a vehicles-for-hire ordinance to regulate them.

The city council granted David Mowry, owner of Kemah Escapes hotel and of Kemah Carriages, a 60-day license to use eight city parking spaces to queue his carriages. Meanwhile, the council will review Galveston’s horse carriage ordinances as they draft one for Kemah, Beverlin said.

The issue is on the agenda of today’s council meeting, but the council can take longer as it reviews the ordinance.

The city needs an ordinance to make sure insurance provisions are appropriate, to designate specific places and routes for carriages and to provide oversight and enforcement capability to the city, Beverlin said.

Right now, the city only has one operator but there could be more in the future, and having certain things spelled out, such as where the carriages will queue and rules on cleaning up after the horses, will be important, Beverlin said.

“It’s hard to enforce anything if there is nothing on the books,” he said.

There have not been any issues with the carriages so far. But the desire to have an ordinance is part of a larger effort to study traffic and make the tourist-friendly town more walkable and attractive, Beverlin said.

“We are really taking a fresh look at everything to see how we can be more efficient and more visitor friendly,” Beverlin said.