Sarasota Has New Parking Manager - He Wants to Charge for 10th St Boat Ramp | 92.1 CTQ

Sarasota Has New Parking Manager - He Wants to Charge for 10th St Boat Ramp Parking and Eliminate FREE Parking on Lido and St. Armand's

The City of Sarasota has a new parking director Broxton Harvey. He presented findings from a parking study conducted in Sarasota, to the City Commission during a workshop on Monday, August 14th, 2023. The discussion was on how to modernize and maximize the city’s inventory of more than 3,000 parking spaces.

If Mr. Harvey’s policies were all implemented, he said the city would gross an additional $3.5 million in revenue per year.

Harvey’s proposals included

Replace the 80 free street side parking spaces on Benjamin Franklin Drive along Lido Beach with metered parking at a rate of $1.50 per hour.

·* Eliminate the two-hour grace period in parking garages. Harvey suggests reducing the grace period to 30 minutes and installing gateless exit systems using license plate recognition technology. Similar to modern toll booth systems, anyone who doesn’t pay at kiosks or by smartphone app will receive a bill for parking in the mail.

·* Charging for the public boat launch at Centennial Park, where parking for vehicles and those with trailers is currently free. He suggested separate flat rates of as much as $25 for vehicles with trailers and $5 for vehicles only.

Eliminate Free Over-flow Boat Ramp Parking at The Van Wezel Parking Lot

Extended all metered parking meter hours until 10 p.m. Enforcement currently ends at 8 p.m.

··* Eliminate the city’s 21 free electric vehicle charging stations. Harvey suggests charging $1 per hour, which he said will cover the costs of electricity.

·* Increase All Parking Fee citations - Current citation fees are $25, $30 and $35. Proposed increase is: $10

Increase downtown rate at State Street and Palm Avenue garages from $20 per month to $35 per month

Increase St. Armands rate in St. Armands garage from $10 per month to $25 per month

Downtown and St. Armands surface parking lots remain at $20 and $10 per month, respectively

Eliminate cash and coin payments.

The Sarasota City Commission says that want to here from the public before making any changes. Keep your eye out on their website and social media for announcements on those, in the future.

Here are links to those pages:

https://www.sarasotafl.gov/

https://www.facebook.com/CityofSarasota

https://www.instagram.com/cityofsarasota/