City plans for loss of parking spaces

Because downtown construction projects are going to result in the loss of parking spaces for much of the rest of the year, the city has formulated a plan to push underutilized parking areas.

Susan Dodd, assistant to the city manager, said she encourages people to use the Second Street garage at Whole Foods, the Cocoanut Avenue lot and the angled parking on Gulf Stream Avenue.

Gulf Stream has 110 all-day spaces that downtown employees frequently use. The city will convert 53 of those spaces to two-hour parking for customer and tourist use.

Dodd said she hopes employees who used Gulf Stream will now use the four-hour parking in the Second Street garage, in the Cocoanut Avenue lot or be willing to park a farther away in bayfront parking lot, near Unconditional Surrender.

Five downtown construction projects from April to December are going to take away a varying number of parking spots on Main Street and Palm Avenue. The projects are the Palm Avenue parking garage, Five Points roundabout, Main Street waterline replacement, intersection improvements at Palm Avenue and Main Street and the Downtown Improvement District landscaping improvements.

Contact Robin Roy at [email protected].