Longbeach Village residents push for resident-only parking

Carla Rowan and her husband have been coming to Longboat Key since 1972 and bought a place in  Longbeach Village in 1980. Of late, they've been trying to persuade the town to solve parking issues in their neighborhood with the only method they say remains.

A resident-only system for curbside parking. 

“We’ll never get anywhere if all we do is go round and round and show pictures of how bad it is, and somebody says, ‘Well, how are you going to fix it?’ ” she said. “That’s how it’s gone.”

Parking complaints are nothing new to the enclave on the north end of the island and have continued despite changes the town has made, including limiting parking to one side of the street on certain roads, driveway setbacks on Broadway Street and lower speed limits. Residents say commercial parking on the east end of Broadway and beach parking on the west end contribute to an untenable situation, though they appreciate the action taken thus far.

“Over the past year and a half the town of Longboat Key has been instrumental in taking steps to protect the Village neighborhood and the residents who live there,” said Becky Parrish, who has been a Village resident for the past 36 years and is a member of the Village Parking Committee, along with the Rowans.

“It’s atrocious to be living this kind of situation when grandchildren come, deliveries need to be made, the lawn services need to get close to your house and can’t,” Rowan said. “That’s all documented complaints from the Village, but we don’t know any other way to do anything.

Town commissioners have set a virtual meeting for June 15 to discuss parking in the Village.

“I would like to see an ordinance begin to be developed,” Rowan said. “Residents do not believe there is any other solution other than permit parking for the residents.”

Restaurant parking in the Village

Residents complain that the size and capacity of The Shore and MarVista Dockside have grown through the decades, without a suitable increase in onsite parking. The owners of MarVista are building a remote parking lot near Broadway and GMD for staff, and The Shore operators have set up a shuttle for its employees to park adjacent to Whitney Plaza.

Recently, beachgoers have found parking along Broadway and other side streets in lieu of closed public lots, which have recently reopened.

The town has also reset the formula for new restaurant parking, though the new requirements are not applicable to existing businesses.

Rowan said the Village can’t handle the problems from overcrowded parking, which includes illegal parking, speeding and leaving trash behind.

“The Village supports all of the Village and we are not against the restaurants,” Rowan said. “We would very much like to just have the restaurants be friendly neighbors, but that's not going to happen until the parking disappears and people have to use the restaurant parking services.”

Other places with resident-only parking

Several places throughout Florida have resident-only parking systems.

“One of the first ones I found was St. Augustine Beach, which has several different kinds of permit parking,” Rowan said.

To establish a resident-only parking system on a street in St. Augustine Beach, a resident must contact the city manager’s office with a receipt of support from 60% of the street’s residents.

After that, signage is put on the street and residents are given a permit to display on the windshield of their car. Up to two permits are given per home each year. Residents who own their home are eligible for a three-year permit, and all other residents are eligible for a one-year permit that can be renewed.

The city of St. Augustine Beach found that on certain streets, “parking by tourists and visitors tends to adversely affect the quality of life for owners and residents living on those residential streets by creating traffic congestion, restricting access to and from their homes, restricting access of emergency vehicles to such areas and otherwise adversely affecting the safety and welfare of the residents.”

What’s next

Mayor Ken Schneier has acknowledged the parking problems in the Village.

“This Village parking is a major issue for them, but it’s also got large policy ramifications and impacts for the island as a whole, and how we deal with such things,” Schneier said. “Over time, it’s expanded beyond just a question of restaurants to include issues regarding beach parking, parking of trailers for the boat launch and other issues like that.”

While many Village residents have expressed their desires for resident-only parking, the town commissioners could consider other proposals during their June 15 meeting.

“I would like to ask the town manager if in that meeting he could also just give an opinion on what it would take if we had limited parking, as in two-hour parking in the Village, similar to what is at St. Armands and some other communities that I’ve driven around,” said Vice Mayor Mike Haycock. “I don’t know if that’s feasible to manage or not.”

Schneier and Commissioner Jack Daly agreed with Haycock on the need to consider time limits for parking.

“I agree with both Vice Mayor Haycock and Commissioner Daly,” Schneier said. “To look again at the alternatives and one those that hasn’t been studied I think is the two-hour parking alternative, to make sure that we’ve left no stone unturned in how we have this discussion.”

Commissioner BJ Bishop said it was important to move forward with the June 15 meeting.

“I think that puts some pressure on Planning and Zoning staff to come up with some draft language for us to review, but I think that’s the appropriate direction to move at this point,” Bishop said. “I don’t think we are well served to say, wait until we can meet person-to-person because God knows when that’s going to be.”

Commissioner Ed Zunz said under normal circumstances he would prefer to meet in person, but he agreed with Bishop that the town has “no choice” given the circumstances.