Extended paid parking hours rescinded in downtown Sarasota

Just more than a month after implementing extended enforcement hours on downtown parking, the Sarasota City Commission has suspended the program while the city explores other options to pay for its parking program.

Downtown business and commercial property owners have lodged numerous complaints about the revised program, claiming expanding paid parking and time-limited free parking enforcement from the original times of 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. to the extended hours of 8 a.m. to midnight six days a week, and starting at 1 p.m. Sundays and 24/7 in parking decks has irreparably harmed their businesses. 

On Monday, commissioners voted unanimously to suspend all the changes made, other than the increase in fines, while they and staff work to find other methods to cover the parking program costs. That reversed a 4-1 approval of the changes on March 23, with Commissioner Kyle Battie opposed. 

The expenses are primarily from debt service and maintenance on the city’s three parking garages and the staff needed for management and enforcement. 

“That's the issue: Who is going to pay for the parking?” said Mayor Debbie Trice near the end of Monday's two-hour discussion. “Somebody is going to pay.”

At the onset of the agenda item under new business, City Attorney Joe Polzak advised, “The simplest action would be to suspend enforcement of the changes or the regulations that you're identifying and give time to evaluate a broader permanent regulatory change.”

That, it turns out, is exactly what the commission did.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

The extension of enforcement hours was one of two options presented by former Parking Division General Manager Broxton Harvey, who has left city employment to return to his home city of Atlanta. The other was a modest hike in parking rates.

“I did listen to Mr. Harvey's presentation, and it kind of had the tone of a man with an anvil around his neck,” Sarasota Med Spa owner Catherine Hermes told commissioners.

Other business owners had plenty to way as well.

“When I moved to Sarasota 20 years ago, downtown wasn't the vibrant place it is today. It took decades of investment, hard work and people willing to take risks to build the downtown that we all love today,” said Chris Voelker, owner of State Street Eating House and Cocktails. “I really feel like the edges are beginning to fray. We can't allow the momentum that we spent 20 years building to just slip away.”

The business owners and other speakers told commissioners the parking conundrum is sending customers to other locales where parking is free, such as University Town Center and others, and once they leave, they don’t easily return.

“These decisions are pushing (customers) to Waterside, Gulf Gate and Venice, where parking is convenient and free,” said Darci’s fashion boutique owner Darci Jacob.

Art to Walk On owner and Downtown Improvement District Board member Eileen Hampshire has also spent two decades as a downtown resident, building owner and merchant. 

“Parking should be a public service for the citizens, not a cash cow for the city,” she said. “Retailers bring a lot to downtown Sarasota, but they're not considered when parking decisions are made. If we want our downtown retail to be competitive with UTC and Waterside, what about thinking outside the box?”

Like 'Groundhog Day'

In describing the downtown parking woes, speakers made references to the movie "Groundhog Day," in which every day was a repeat of the day before.

“We keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results,” Hampshire said. “We buy meters that can't be read in the sun in a city where it's sunny most of the time. The citizens complain. The City Commission votes to remove the meters. The meters are not able to be sold secondhand, and then a few years later we install parking meters in the sun, and the process continues until the citizens show up at a commission meeting to protest.”

The parking challenges extend beyond downtown, crossing the Ringling Bridge and onto St. Armands, where St. Armands Circle Association Executive Director Rachel Burns said it is the primary complaint among visitors and merchants.

“I do want to ask that in the future you speak with stakeholders before making these changes and listen to our feedback,” Burns said. “We don't want to be here as much as you don't want to be here late in the day listening to all of us.”

And so, commissioners agreed, they shall.

“We had the best of intentions, and we thought extending the hours and keeping the rates low would be the solution,” said Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich. “We didn't talk to our stakeholders. We didn't talk to the restauranteurs, the retailers, our residents or our tourists. We talked to ourselves, and we thought we did the right thing. 

“Clearly, it wasn't the right thing.”

Sarasota City Manager Karie Friling told commissioners the enforcement changes can go into effect immediately, but changing signs back to the original hours and reprogramming digital meters may take up to two weeks to complete.