parking<\/a> has become more difficult as more people visit the beach.<\/p>\n\u201cI do think the increases are needed,\u201d Loughery said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a little bit of supply and demand. We\u2019ve gotten ourselves into a pickle with traffic down here so something has to be done.”<\/p>\n
The city is now considering several changes to its parking system.<\/p>\n
One proposal discussed at this week\u2019s City Commission meeting would raise hourly rates to $5 on weekdays and $6 on weekends, with Fridays counted as weekend rates. Additional $1 increases would apply during sunset hours from 4 to 8 p.m. and another $1 per hour during peak season from February 1 through April 30.<\/p>\n
Holiday parking could also increase from a flat rate of $25 a day to $40.<\/p>\n
\u201cParking isn\u2019t just a revenue generator, it\u2019s also trying to turnover those parking spaces which can benefit businesses by getting more people out here,\u201d a city official said during the meeting.<\/p>\n
The proposal also includes passing the 3% credit card transaction fee to customers.<\/p>\n
If all the changes are implemented, the city estimates the system could generate about $1.7 million a year.<\/p>\n
Loughery says she supports higher hourly rates but opposes the potential holiday fee increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s plenty of people that come out to swim for a couple of hours and would like to pay the meter by the hour,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t need to be paying $30 or $40 for a quick swim or $30 or $40 for breakfast or $30 or $40 to shop in a retail shop on a holiday weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
City leaders say improving enforcement will also be key. Officials noted the city had struggled to fill enforcement positions but is now fully staffed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some cases where I\u2019ve heard a lack of enforcement, I\u2019m hopeful that will pick up now that we\u2019re full staffed and we\u2019re looking at technology advancements so we can maximize our enforcement efforts,\u201d a city official said.<\/p>\n
Loughery says enforcement will be critical to making the system work, especially in areas intended for local businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201c9th Avenue should be free for restaurants and shops and I think it should be enforced,\u201d Loughery said. \u201cIt basically gets parked out with beachgoers, even though it says no beach parking simply because it\u2019s not enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commission will take up the issue again at its March 24 meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Pete Beach commissioners are considering several changes to the city\u2019s parking system, including higher hourly rates. ST.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-189234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}