Circle businesses question paid parking plans

As a divided City Commission debated Monday the best way to close a budget gap nearing $900,000, none of the board members expressed interest in a proposal staff said could generate $310,000 in net revenue next year.

That proposal? Paid parking on Main Street and Palm Avenue.

It’s a controversial prospect in the city — one the commission backed away from last October, but didn’t quite rule out.

At the very least, city officials are not eager to discuss the prospect of paid parking downtown. That reticence remains in place even after staff produced a report recommending parking meters in high-demand locations in the city’s core. The opposition is connected to a failed effort in 2011 to create a paid parking program downtown.

The idea that paid parking is a controversial subject in Sarasota isn’t new. But it has recently become a point of concern for business owners on St. Armands Circle, who have already committed to a paid parking system in the commercial district set to launch at the end of the year.

Merchants in the area are worried about the prospect of doing business in the only area of Sarasota where visitors are required to pay to park. Beginning in 2015, St. Armands leaders said they were willing to accept paid parking to help fund a long-desired parking garage project, which is under construction.

Those leaders saw paid parking as an inevitability citywide. In 2016, the City Commission adopted a comprehensive parking strategy that recommended parking meters downtown. Staff developed a strategy for where to place the meters and began researching equipment. The goal was to establish paid parking downtown by 2017.

“It’s not a question of if we’re going to put paid parking in,” Marty Rappaport, then co-chairman of the St. Armands Business Improvement District, said in 2016. “I think we’re one of the very few cities of our size that don’t have paid parking.”

But gradually, support fell apart. Downtown merchants spoke up against paid parking. The process of searching for a vendor to provide meters took longer than expected. Before staff was prepared to finalize a plan, two new commissioners took office. Last fall, the reconfigured board reversed course, instead encouraging staff to explore other opportunities for reducing a parking deficit that’s set to top $630,000 next year.

City Parking Manager Mark Lyons said paid parking downtown was never an explicit condition of the St. Armands paid parking program. Still, he said he understood the concern of the Circle merchants.

City administrators said staff intends to once again discuss parking revenue options — including downtown on-street paid parking — with the commission in the fall.

City Manager Tom Barwin said officials are sensitive to the concerns of downtown merchants. But he anticipated the community could become more receptive to the idea as downtown continues to grow, increasing the demand for the existing parking supply.

“Additional pressure on the street may force the issue this year or next year,” Barwin said.

Irrespective of what happens downtown, Lyons believes that paid parking can be an effective tool for St. Armands Circle. The preliminary city budget projects the initiative will generate more than $1 million in revenue. Lyons said paid parking will improve circulation in prime spots in front of business and decrease traffic congestion associated with drivers circulating to find a space.

The future of parking management in the city is a policy decision the commission will ultimately settle. Lyons indicated he believed the city still has work to do in terms of establishing a comprehensive parking policy that will be sustainable for the long term. He pointed to mid-2000s master plans that recommended construction of parking garages, installation of on-street parking meters and more.

“The difficulty, of course, is that we pick certain things that we would do and other things that we didn’t do,” Lyons said. “It’s become costly because of that. Now, we have to look it more holistically instead of thinking there’s just one answer.”

Whether that holistic approach will include expanded downtown paid parking remains to be seen. Merchants on St. Armands Circle will be watching for a resolution