Village parking study reveals no problems

Town Manager Dave Bullock says a parking issue brought to the attention of town staff by Longbeach Village residents last year doesn’t exist.

Villagers expressed concern with cars parked on both sides of their streets, mainly in season, creates a potential problems for motorists and fire trucks that might not be able to drive the streets when responding to emergencies.

At the request of Town Manager Dave Bullock and the Longboat Key Town Commission, the Longboat Key Police Department conducted a parking study from November 2014 through April 2015 to monitor on-street parking in Longbeach Village to determine the number of vehicles parking overnight along Village roads.

Officers drove each street between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. and recorded cars parked on the street, issuing citations to cars that had parking violations.

From Nov. 21, 2014 through Jan. 21, 55 cars were found on Village streets and 55% of those cars were parked only one night and nine parking citations were issued.

From Feb. 1  through Feb. 27, 10 cars were parked on the streets and five of them parked there for just one night.

From March 2 through March 9, seven cars were on the streets and only two cars were parked on the street every night during those days.

From April 6 through April 12, nine cars were on the streets and two cars were parked there every night.

Inspections by both the police department and Longboat Key Fire Rescue, which drove the streets in fire trucks during busy lunchtime and dinnertime hours, found no issues of cars inhibiting the trucks ability to drive down the roads.

“I don’t see any need to conduct additional daily inspections based on the data contained herein,” Bullock wrote to commissioners in a May 4 email.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].