Survey says? Sarasota County surveying Siesta Key Village for possible parking

As Sarasota County staff performs a parking survey on Siesta Key, it is also partnering with Key organizations to devise short- and long-term solutions.

By Jessica Salmond
| 12:00 a.m. March 5, 2015

Fred Moser, survey assistant for Sarasota County, collects data on Canal Road.

Sarasota
News

Right of way revisitation: the county is surveying these areas near the Village, looking for extra parking places.

Sarasota County and Siesta Key organizations are partnering to solve the prolonged parking dilemma on the barrier island.

In February, a parking committee consisting of county staff, Commissioner Alan Maio and various Village stakeholders met to brainstorm short- and long-term solutions to address the lack of parking.

“We know there’s no quick fix,” said Michael Shay, president of Siesta Key Association. “We’re looking at small fixes — we can’t just put up a 500-spot garage.”

Sarasota County is surveying streets near the intersections of Ocean Boulevard, Avenida Messina, Canal Road and Columbus Boulevard to gather information about the rights of way in the Village and gain a more comprehensive understanding of what space is underutilized, said Lisa Cece, special districts coordinator. The last parking study on the Village was completed in 2008.

Sheriff cracks down on violations

The Sheriff’s Office deputies have been tightening parking enforcement in the Village, especially monitoring Avenida Milano and Madera. These streets received a ban on parking in January for one side of the street. A parking ticket is $25, unless someone parks in a more restricted area such as a bicycle lane: then the fine increases to $74.50. Sgt. Scott Osborne said that his usual three-person unit writes about 100 tickets a month. The next two months bring on a challenge for the Sheriff’s Office every year: Spring break brings an influx of students onto the popular barrier island. Osborne said the Key gets extra staffing — on horseback, bicycle and squad car. “In March and April, we bring out everyone,” Osborne said. During spring break, the Sheriff’s Office uses a special administrative order that allows deputies to write a fine for out-of-state violators instead of having to make them come back to Sarasota for a court date. This order helps the Sheriff’s Office target underage drinking and other crimes related to spring break activities without having the complications of dealing with people who live outside the county or state.

Expanding right of way parking is one option that would require some street modifications, but it would not be an extensively difficult project in terms of money or time, said Mark Smith, vice president of the Siesta Key Village Association, at Tuesday’s SKVA meeting.

Shay hopes that eventually the parking spaces at Siesta Key Public Beach could be used for Village overflow after the parking lot closes for the evening. He met with county staff to discuss his idea, but the county said it couldn’t address the option until the Siesta Key Beach Improvement Project was finished — December at the earliest. The parking lots originally held 837 spots; the improvements added 143 more.

SKVA members also discussed the idea of a trolley that could transport people from beach parking to the Village and back, if the county allowed some place in the parking lot for the trolley to stop.

Russell Matthes, owner of Daiquiri Deck and past president of SKVA, reminded those at the meeting that SKVA had tried to manage a trolley program in the past, and it had been too expensive.

Matthes said six or seven years ago SKVA teamed up with the island’s condos, which paid a $500 per month fee to have the trolley stop there. The trolley ran from Beach Bazaar down Midnight Pass, about eight hours a day during peak hours, every day from Valentine’s Day to Easter.

The trolley ran for two years — it averaged about 122 riders a day — but the labor, fuel and maintenance costs made the project too expensive, Matthes said.

Kay Kouvatsos, owner of the Village Café, said she wasn’t sure if a trolley or bus system was the most satisfactory way of transporting people on the Key, because of traffic.

“You promise people a trolley, but it’s going to get stuck in traffic,” she said.

One method everyone agreed on is finding a way to open up private lots to visitors after businesses close. Some businesses have to prohibit parking after hours because of a liability issue, said Debra Lynn-Schmitz, executive director of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce.

Lynn-Schmitz has been researching an umbrella insurance policy for the Village that would protect the businesses and allow those who consented to opt into allowing parking after hours in their lots.

“It can be done,” she said.

SKVA members also noted the upcoming Siesta Fiesta arts festival, which is set for April 11 and 12.

Met with laughter, SKVA President Wendell Jacobsen commented: “We’ll discuss the parking problem then, as well.”