Mayor Rob Marlowe
If you’ve been following NPR Notes for any length of time, you’ll know that parking has been a recurring theme as the historic downtown has started to come back to life.
The availability of parking simply didn’t matter when the downtown sat mostly empty and the place looked like a ghost town. Main Street wasn’t quite as bad as Market Street in Centerville Florida, but we were headed in that direction.
The resurgence of our historic downtown has put pressure on the available parking. While the problem is particularly acute when we have special events in the park, it is no longer unusual to discover that finding a parking place can be a challenge on any given afternoon or evening.
There is potentially a long range solution in a parking garage, but we are going to need interim solutions long before that garage holds its first cars. Our existing city parking lots and on-street parking are stretched, particularly in the afternoons and evenings when Sims Park is full and the dinner crowds head downtown to eat at one of our many restaurants. Toss in shows at the Richey Suncoast Theatre and Jimmy Ferraro’s Studio Theatre and things get extremely tight.
I attended the Cityworks conference in Winter Haven this past week. The conference was held in a downtown church and the pastor, during his welcome comments, pointed out that they were an ideal downtown tenant in part because, while they fill up their parking on Sunday mornings, it is open most of the rest of the week for use by people who want to come downtown to shop or dine. Additionally, the conference had arranged for golf cart shuttles between the city’s parking garage and the church.
Two cars and a church bus are all there are to see in two very large church parking lots earlier this week.
There are multiple private parking lots within a few blocks of our downtown that could be used. The Red Apple School, the First United Methodist Church, and the Community Congregational Church all have decent sized parking lots that sit empty most of the time. Would any of them be interested in leasing parking space to the city? I don’t know, but it might be worth asking them. Both Community Congregational and First Methodist allow you to park, for a fee, in their lots on parade days now.
If some enterprising individual started running a parking circuit with an NEV, you wouldn’t even have to walk. That would solve the parking issue for some of the folks who are trying to get to one of the theatres or other downtown establishments.
If you look closely at the picture above, you’ll notice the Level 1 charging station at First Methodist is in use. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, I believe the city should be incorporating charging stations in city lots around town. Cars that can take advantage of them are becoming more common by the day.
A smart micro car and a GEM NEV sharing a space – Photo courtesy of Bob Langford.
With the recently passed golf cart ordinance, we could make more space simply by marking a few existing spaces as reserved for vehicles short enough to fit in them sideways. Other spots that are too short for a regular car would be perfect for golf cart / NEV parking.
As you can see from the photo on the left, a micro-car and a GEM NEV are sharing a single parking space with plenty of room for three more. That is five cars worth of people visiting the museum or the park in a space designed for a single car.
With a little creative thinking we can create extra spaces around town for nothing more than the cost of a few signs and some paint. We could go all out with Level 1 charging stations like the one at First Methodist for a modest investment and probably only a few dollars worth of electricity each month. Then the NEV owners could have their vehicles’ batteries topped off while they are having dinner downtown, visiting the museum, or enjoying our park.
There are streets around town where either parallel or angle parking would be easy to establish. We’re talking dozens of spaces for the cost of some paint. All of these potential spaces are within just a few blocks of the downtown.
None of this is rocket science, simply a little thinking outside of the box.
Rob Marlowe, Mayor
I agree entirely, and I wonder if it would be possible to escape entirely the need for a parking garage. I don’t think that’s something we want right now with so much difficulty in “having nice things” as we do in the area.
There’s so much room for parking that it seems like we should change how things are done a bit before spending millions to keep things the same.
Jon,
That thought had certainly crossed my mind. I believe we should be looking at all of our options before deciding. We may ultimately need to make the investment in the parking garage. If we are going to spend the sort of money involved in that, we need to do so with our eyes open and fully understand the costs of various options.
Great ideas here! I completely echo the low cost approach of paint! Our existing, underperforming asphalt could be dual purposed to accommodate many more parking spaces in the core. Adams, Missouri, and Central are just a few of the opportunities that come to mind. They are not well marked now, so a lot of the spots are empty even on busy evenings. I really like the idea of leasing parking from private property owners- it’s a much lower cost to the city and it provides some economic benefit to the citizens. It’s definitely a win-win. These measures may even eliminate the need for a parking garage (maybe not forever, but for a long while).
My concern with the garage is the return on investment versus the debt obligations for a city that does not have a strong economic base. Even with low interest, the city is still incurring a significant amount of debt for an asset that does not produce revenue or contribute to the tax base; there will also be escalating maintenance costs as the facility ages, so there will be a net financial loss to the city. Maybe the cost of a new garage could be justified if parking requirements for downtown businesses were completely eliminated. Doing this would free up more land for new buildings, which would increase the tax base, etc. That being said, I hope to see the day that downtown is so crowded that we need a garage to meet all the demand. I think the pieces are in place for that to happen, but we’re still several years from needing a garage.
Andy,
Thanks for your comments. The parking garage option will take several years to do, so now is the time to be talking about it. If it is the only viable option, then we need to start building ASAP. If some of the other options are viable, then we buy ourselves some time.
Beef O Bradys should be open late this summer or early fall. Main Street Landing should be completed within 18 months. The first phase of the Residences at Orange Lake, built on the old Baptist Church parking lot, won’t be far behind. All three of these projects have the potential to bring a lot of additional people and cars downtown. The Residences at Orange Lake will eliminate parking that is currently used anytime there is anything big happening in Sims Park.
Thank you Mayor, for using great insight and vision in this progressing situation. My patrons are mostly seniors and find parking a great challenge; regardless of downtown special events. I appreciate your addressing these concerns, which when resolved, will benefit the entire community.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Ferraro
Jimmy Ferraro’s STUDIO THEATRE