Villagers seek to curb parking spaces

Longbeach Village residents asked the town for additional parking restrictions earlier this year. They got their wish, when the Longboat Key Town Commission passed an ordinance Nov. 4, establishing new rules.

But last week, when the town painted the curb of Broadway where parking is prohibited yellow and white lines establishing where parking is allowed on the south side of the street, some residents felt the town crossed the line.

“Everybody I’ve spoken to says it makes it look ugly as sin,” said Village resident James Braha, who emailed Mayor Jim Brown to complain about the new spaces.

Braha wrote: “The unsightly road changes on Broadway in the Village, I must say, are quite ugly. I suppose it solves the parking problem caused by the never-ending expansion of Mar Vista, but it turns our quiet, quaint community into something resembling a shopping mall parking lot. I don’t recall having heard any plans beforehand about these changes.”

Brown said the spaces were a matter of enforcement.

“They asked us to put one-sided parking in, and they asked us to enforce it,” Brown said. “A yellow curb is the international sign of no-parking.”

For more information, pick up a Nov. 27 copy of the Longboat Observer.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].