Package of parking changes pleases residents

It’s a start.

Longbeach Village residents said they are generally pleased with a package of street-parking and speed-limit changes town leaders are considering for their neighborhood, but many said they’d still like to see a residents-only permit for their streets.

The issue of parking, which has flared up off and on in the north-end neighborhood for years, took on renewed urgency in February not long after MarVista Dockside opened its remodeled expansion. Neighbors began seeking solutions from town leaders when the popular eatery began attracting crowds.

Overnight parking connected with boaters or visitors to Jewfish Key contributes to the problem, neighbors said. They also alerted police to speeders on Broadway.

Resident Becky Parrish said Monday that the soon-to-open Shore restaurant at the east end of Broadway Street and Whitney’s Roadside, an informal eatery proposed for the corner of Broadway and Gulf of Mexico Drive will only exacerbate the issues.

“As we know, three restaurants on that same street are going to be detrimental to our peace and tranquility,’’ she said, advocating for a residents-only system.

Among the changes initially approved by Commissioners on Monday:

• Private valet parking services would be prohibited from using public parking space or parking on public rights of ways unless specifically permitted.
• Broadway Street’s 25 mph speed limit would be changed to 20 mph, which would match up with the rest of the town’s neighborhood streets.
• Street parking, where allowed, would end 50 feet from intersections, instead of the current 30 feet to open up sightlines for drivers trying to pull out from a side street. Residents had complained it was often hard to see traffic coming down Broadway Street.
• Parking would be generally prohibited on the streets between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. in the Village, with the hopes of prompting overnight boaters to use a designated off-site lot on the other side of the Longboat Pass bridge. Commissioners were originally presented with a town-wide option, which they amended to apply to Village streets.
• Additional no-parking zones on Russell Street and Poinsettia Avenue.

Other changes still in the works include a three-day limit on street parking, additional no-parking zones along Linley Street near the boat ramp and additional no-parking zones on Lois Street. The town would also make clear there is no parking allowed, ever, in the neighborhood’s series of mid-block alleyways that run behind homes.

Planning, Building and Zoning Director Allen Parsons said recent conversations with the operators of MarVista Dockside Restaurant indicated they have looked into and are considering an off-site parking arrangement for employees to open up space when tourism season returns next fall.

He also said owners of The Shore have filed initial paperwork to revise the project’s site plan to open up more parking, though that application will have to work its way through a public-approval process, ending with an OK from the full Commission.

Parsons said the proposed changes, which will likely be revisited on June 3, are incremental steps. The town plans to monitor their effectiveness next fall and winter and then possibly consider further action.

Commissioner Ed Zunz urged Parsons to keep that option open.