BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners plan to discuss the possibility of charging for parking in some city-owned parking lots.
During the July 7 city commission meeting, Commissioner Jake Spooner requested that a city commission workshop be scheduled to discuss potential paid parking.
“I was going to ask the board if there’d be any appetite to have a workshop on the possibility of paid parking in the city lots,” he said.
“I think that would be wonderful,” Commissioner Jan Vosburgh said.
“I agree,” Mayor John Chappie added. “We briefly discussed it a little while back and I know you’ve been working with the (police) chief.”
Chappie asked Spooner to work with City Clerk Terri Sanclemente to schedule the requested commission workshop, which will also include insight from Police Chief John Cosby.
He noted the scheduling of a commission workshop does not mean the commission is already committed to the idea of paid parking.
“We’re going to hear what Commissioner Spooner has prepared, and discussion with the chief, and see where we’re at,” Chappie said.
Past discussions
Spooner has suggested paid parking in the past. During the June 1 Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meeting, he suggested paid parking in city-owned parking lots as a means of generating additional revenue to help subsidize the CRA-funded Old Town Tram program; and to also help fund additional policing within the CRA district that extends from the Cortez Bridge to Fifth Street South. In response, Chappie said he didn’t want to see paid parking lots located all over the city.
More than a year ago, when discussing the potential replacement of the aging city hall building, Spooner suggested building a new city hall/police department building near the existing police department and public works buildings and converting the existing city hall property into a paid parking lot. Spooner estimated this would generate enough revenues to pay off the new city hall complex in 10 years and continue to provide the city with additional revenues after that.
In response to that suggestion, Chappie and Vosburgh expressed opposition to converting the city hall property located across the street from the Gulf of Mexico into a paid parking lot.
A new trend?
On Thursday, July 14, the Anna Maria City Commission is expected to approve a site plan amendment that will formalize the existing paid parking in a lot owned by Ed Chiles and the Sandbar restaurant ownership group.
Located near the Sandbar, the automated paid parking kiosk provided by Joshua LaRose’s Easy Parking Group charges $5 per hour or $30 for eight hours of paid public parking that is open to anyone on a first-come, first-served basis. Parking in that lot is not restricted to Sandbar restaurant patrons only.
LaRose’s company also provides paid parking kiosks in downtown Sarasota and in Siesta Key. He is also the service and equipment provider for the Bradenton Beach CRA’s Old Town Tram service.
The anticipated approval of the Sandbar’s paid parking program may inspire other private and public property owners to follow suit as a means of generating additional revenues while also providing more public parking on Anna Maria Island.
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