Town shifts Village's drive for resident passes into park

Longbeach Village residents seem pretty sure about how to solve a parking problem they say is made worse by the popularity of an expanded neighborhood eatery.

In a recent neighborhood survey, 214 of 226 people who answered said they’d favor a resident-only pass system for on-street parking spots along the public streets of the town’s northernmost single-family enclave.

“Happy day, the Village has never had consensus on anything, but here we are,’’ said resident Lynne Hayden.

It’s been more than a month since residents began a flurry of emails to Town Hall, complaining about an upswing of street parking, traffic and safety concerns after Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub debuted its enlarged and remodeled waterfront location at the east end of Broadway Street -- a quiet, residential area.

Hayden said it was that quaint way of life that was at risk with the addition of more traffic and more parked cars.

Residents blame not only the restaurant’s valet parking and lack of reservation system for their troubles.  Overnight parking of stay-aboard boaters and visitors to Jewfish Key also are part of the problem, they say.

“We can’t get the lawn mower man and plumber a place to park when they come,’’ said Broadway resident Carla Rowan. “I tell them to park on Poinsetta and walk over.’’

Town officials have spoken to residents and stakeholders in the neighborhood, including the operators of Mar Vista and The Shore, which is expected to open before the summer.

Town staffers’ top suggestion was adding no-parking zones to one side of Russell Street and Lois Street, which Town Commissioners on Monday accepted as part of package of their own ideas that they could more formally consider at a Town Commission meeting in May.

Among the other possibilities for which Commissioners assembled consensus for possible further action:

• A ban on the use of public streets for the restaurants’ private valet parking. Town Attorney Maggie Mooney said she would look into the legality of such a move. The city of Sarasota operates in a similar way, though some restaurants maintain an agreement with the city to do so.
• A ban on overnight parking
• A three-day limit on parking
• A 20 mph speed limit
• Adding space to no-parking zones at intersections, to help open up sightlines. Residents complain it’s often difficult to see oncoming traffic when curbside parking is loaded up.

Allen Parsons, the town’s building, planning and zoning director, said there are logistical problems with a neighborhood permit system, even though neighbors said they would be willing to cover the costs of producing the permits themselves.

“We do have some concerns with implementing a residents-only parking program,’’ he said, adding a new program such as this would take some research how such a program would operate. “Limiting access to something that is paid for by all the residents of the town could be seen as a fairness issue,’’ he said.

Vice mayor Ed Zunz said he hopes the restaurants could be persuaded to consider off-site parking for their staffs to open up more on-property parking. He said such places as Whitney Plaza or an empty bank building just south of Broadway Street could serve that purpose.

“We need to do something more than one-sided parking,’’ Zunz said.