Rejecting parking restrictions<\/p>\n
What we know<\/p>\n
City leaders voted down a proposal that would have allowed specific neighborhoods outside of downtown to establish resident-only parking zones.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/a5c73cb17928d9d1d9eb6dc717557d49.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The decision came after St. Pete City Council members listened to public comments last week from both frustrated neighbors and worried business owners last Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, local officials decided against expanding the restricted zones.<\/p>\n
Parking struggles<\/p>\n
What they’re saying<\/p>\n
Travis Spivey, an employee at Violet Stone Pizzeria, routinely has to park a mile away from his job and walk because workers are barred from using the lot behind the restaurant.<\/p>\n
“I have to park like a mile away from work, to park on the side of the street,” Spivey said. “We\u2019re not allowed to park in a lot behind the restaurant.”<\/p>\n
Richard Kanatzar was searching for a parking spot while making a delivery in St. Petersburg. He believes resident-only parking zones could help address the problem.<\/p>\n
“If you live here, and you can’t park outside your apartment or house, I think you should have residents only parking,” Kanatzar said.<\/p>\n
Protecting small businesses<\/p>\n
The other side<\/p>\n
Across town, customers packed Wildflower Ice Cream\u00a0on Wednesday as employees served scoops of ice cream to help beat the heat.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/8c96e3d0a749b17db733d36ced8a2fbd.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Owner Steve McGarry\u00a0says limiting street parking would create challenges for his customers and employees.<\/p>\n
“It would be super impactful, not only for revenue,” he said. “For our employees to be able to get into the shop and get here on time.”<\/p>\n
Balancing neighborhood needs<\/p>\n
Local perspective<\/p>\n
After hearing from both supporters and opponents, local leaders ultimately rejected the idea.<\/p>\n
City Council Chair Lisset Hanewicz says this decision was about finding a responsible approach to the city\u2019s parking challenges.<\/p>\n
“This is not about picking on people who have houses that are by businesses or businesses who are in the middle of a neighborhood,” she said. “This is about a city being responsible.”<\/p>\n
Past parking changes<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
This is not the first time parking has sparked debate in St. Pete.<\/p>\n
Last month, the city council unanimously voted to remove rules requiring new developments along the SunRunner corridor to provide a certain number of parking spaces.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
Information for this story came from statements from St. Petersburg City Council, interviews with local business owners, interviews with residents and previous reporting on FOX 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief St. Pete City Council members rejected a proposal to expand resident-only parking zones into several neighborhoods…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[16930,832,16852,81250,129844,202,204,203,199,201,200,15416],"class_list":["post-311554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-businesses","tag-city-council","tag-neighborhoods","tag-parking-spot","tag-popular-restaurants","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-street-parking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311554","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=311554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}