ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — A parking rate hike that St. Pete Beach city commissioners approved two weeks ago went into effect on Wednesday, due to the time it took vendors to update their systems, according to Assistant City Manager Adam Poirrier.

What You Need To Know

On March 24, city commissioners approved, on a 4-to-1 vote, to raise the parking rate fees by 50 cents

The price hike went into effect on Wednesday, due to the time it took vendors to update their systems 

The increase brings the weekday rate to $5 per hour and the weekend rate, with Friday added, to $6

During tourist season, from February through April, rates will increase by an additional $1

“As soon as the council gives us direction to raise parking fees, then we try to enact that as quickly as possible,” he said. “We notified our vendors the day after the commission meeting.”

On March 24, city commissioners approved, on a 4-to-1 vote, to raise the parking rate fees by 50 cents. The increase brings the weekday rate to $5 per hour and the weekend rate, with Friday added, to $6. During the tourist season, from February through April, rates will increase by an additional $1.

The highest number of metered parking spots are located in Pass-a-Grille, which is City Commissioner Jon Maldonado’s district. Maldonado called the parking rate increase “minimal” and said it was recommended by the Finance and Budget Review Committee.

“We had parking studies that also indicated to us that the city needed to improve its parking rates to be consistent with what’s going on around us,” he said. “St. Pete Beach gets a lot of traction. Everybody wants to come to Pass-a-Grille. Parking is at a premium. So we think that it’s fair.”

The city projects the parking rate increase will generate more than $1.7 million in extra revenue every year. It’s money St. Pete Beach desperately needs to maintain its roads, along with the sewer and stormwater system, which is estimated to cost more than $200 million.

Maldonado called it an economic development opportunity, too.

“If parking is too cheap, folks will come out here, they’ll sit here all day long. They will not be encouraged or incentivized to leave sooner,” he said. “So this way we can get more people to enjoy the beach, enjoy the businesses, and therefore benefit both the tourists and the residents.”

David Whitfield was visiting Pass-a-Grille from Atlanta with his family on Wednesday and said this was not the time to raise prices on the public. Especially with gas prices rising on average by $1.18 from 6 weeks ago due to the U.S. attack on Iran, according to data from AAA.

“With everything going on in the world, I’m thinking we don’t need to raise no cost,” Whitfield said. “I think the American people is already maxed out.”

Mayor Scott Tate said many business owners want to see more turnover in parking spots and asked staff to look into a duration-based fee schedule. Poirrier said the city holiday flat rate increase from $25 to $40 will be paused for the next three holidays to gather turnover data. The city will keep the hourly rate for Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.

“We’re going to let the hourly rate play out through those three holidays,” he said. “To do a little data search to make sure that we’re not negatively affecting anything.”

Rick Falkenstein, the owner of Hurricane Seafood Restaurant, said he’s not in favor of a holiday flat rate. He was pushing the city commission to expand the parking rate hours and keep the maximum rate all year.

“You come to the beach, you should pay hourly,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I was at the last meeting. I suggested 24-7 and keep the… (tourist season) rates because it gets really congested and messy out here.”

Poirrier said parking enforcement has been fully staffed, with three full-time officers and one part time. The code enforcement officers will be out scanning license plates to ensure visitors have paid the new parking rate.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to raise rates in hour periods where we’re not doing enforcement because we do run into enforcement issues out of here,” he said. “Last week alone, I think we wrote almost 700 parking related tickets. So it’s pretty significant, the enforcement efforts.”

The city commission declined to implement other suggested price hikes, which included passing along credit card transaction fees to visitors and sunset pricing that added $1 between 4-to-8 p.m.

Treasure Island charges $4.95 per hour during the week and $5.95 on weekends, with a $1 increase for sunset parking. Madeira Beach charges $4 per hour to park. Clearwater Beach charges $3.50 per hour for parking.