BRADENTON BEACH – The parking tram pilot program in Bradenton Beach is expected to begin service on Sunday, Nov. 1.
The Bradenton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) members unanimously approved a one-year contract on Wednesday, Sept. 2 with Easy Parking Group owner Joshua LaRose, who in June was selected as the CRA’s top choice over two other bidders.
Easy Parking Group already provides daily tram service for the Daiquiri Deck and the Bridge Street Bazaar businesses that operate in the building owned by CRA member and City Commissioner Jake Spooner.
Utilizing two electric, golf-cart-like trams, the pilot program will be funded by the CRA. The trams will be owned, operated, maintained and insured by the Easy Parking Group and one of the trams will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The rides will be free for passengers, but tram drivers will gladly accept tips.
The one-year contract provides LaRose with exclusive rights for five one-year renewals.
When service begins, the trams will provide park-and-ride shuttle services in and around the CRA district that extends from the Cortez Bridge to Fifth Street South. The county-owned parking spaces at Cortez Beach – along Gulf Drive and south of Bridge Street – will be among the locations where motorists can park for free and catch a free ride to various destinations in and around the CRA district. The county-owned parking spaces further south at Coquina Beach may also be used.
City Attorney Ricinda Perry said there’s “absolutely no need to go to the county” regarding the use of the county-owned beach parking spaces currently used by Island residents, county residents, non-residents, the Monkey Bus and others. Perry said there’s nothing that prohibits or prevents the CRA from running trams to those public parking areas.
The city-owned parking lot behind the BridgeWalk resort and the city lot next to the public works department building may also serve as park-and-ride destinations, as could the after-hours parking spaces at city hall.
The trams will also provide park-and-ride service to employees who work in and around the CRA district.
“It will move them to the Coquina and Cortez beach areas if the owners of the establishments tell their people they need to park elsewhere and open up more spaces closer to the businesses we have in the Bridge Street/CRA area,” CRA member and Mayor John Chappie said.
Tram routing
The initial tram plans envisioned trams running back and forth between Cortez Beach and the public works parking lot, using Fifth Street South, Bay Drive South, Church Street North, First Street North and Bridge Street as the proposed travel routes.
This led to some public resistance from residents who live along Fifth Street South and Bay Drive South, which led to additional CRA discussions about potentially using a route that relies more on Gulf Drive and Bridge Street.
During Wednesday’s meeting, resident Terry Gephardt again expressed her concerns about the potential tram route.
“I want to make the same comment I’ve made all along: Please do not run the tram down Fifth Street South. We are a neighborhood. We want to be a community, we don’t want to be a commercial endeavor,” she said.
The exact tram routes and operating hours will be subject to ongoing review and revision.
“This is a pilot project. We need to decide where it runs, where it will be best suited, how often it will be used and what the peak seasonal needs and demands are,” Perry said.
Chappie also addressed the routing concerns.
“The routing is going to be flexible. I’ve heard what the concerns are on Fifth Street and there’s a lot of good points there. I think we need to look at these other areas, along with the Fifth Street area. I think we need to move forward with it and see how this shakes out,” Chappie said.
Perry said LaRose is willing to treat the pilot program as a fluid situation as long as the CRA commits to two trams.
The contract calls for LaRose to provide the CRA with ridership and route data that can be used to continually evaluate the program’s impact and success.
That data may also be used to support the CRA’s potential future efforts to install a dedicated tram path in the Cortez Beach parking area, running parallel to Gulf Drive. City Engineer Lynn Burnett has already discussed with county staff the possibility of a tram path and reconfiguring the Cortez Beach parking lots using diagonal parking and ropes and bollards to separate the parking areas from the tram path.
Anticipated costs
Perry said the trams will run seven days a week, 365 days a year and the initial hours of operation will be Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The city’s contract with the Easy Parking Group is based on daily rates. Perry said the rates will be $155 per day for the regular shuttle cart and $165 per day for the ADA-compliant cart. This equates to $320 per day, approximately $9,731 per month and $116,800 per year.
As he has done during previous discussions, CRA Chair Ralph Cole again expressed concerns about dedicating more than $100,000 per year in annual CRA revenues to a parking tram program. In recent years, CRA’s annual tax revenues have averaged between $500,000 and $600,000, according to City Treasurer Shayne Thompson.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Cole questioned whether the proposed annual tram expenditure might be better used to pursue other CRA projects instead, including the additional undergrounding of utility lines. Despite his reservations, Cole agreed to give the pilot program a try.
Perry said advertising revenue generated by signs affixed to the trams would help offset some of the CRA expenses. Perry said the ad revenues will be noted on the monthly invoices and deducted from the CRA’s monthly payments to the Easy Parking Group. Perry said she’s already been contacted by six business owners interested in advertising.
“If the pilot program’s not successful, we can cancel it. If we decide we can’t appropriate the funds for it, we can get out of it,” Perry said.
Additional comments
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the road construction taking place in and around the CRA district, member David Bell questioned whether Nov. 1 was the best time to launch the program and begin collecting ridership data.
CRA member and Beach House restaurant owner Ed Chiles said, “It seems like we’re on the precipice here of success, and that gives me goosebumps. We’ve been working on this for years and years.”
Chiles noted parking has historically been the biggest problem in the Bradenton Beach business district.
“I think it’s a great overall Bradenton Beach project. We’re going to have something fresh and new as we hopefully come out of this pandemic. I think it’s universally supported by the businesses. Ricinda, thank you for your perseverance. It looks like we’re about to make this thing happen,” Chiles said.
