ANNA MARIA – Mayor Mark Short spent more than two hours speaking to approximately 150 people during the city’s town hall-style parking study meeting.
The well-attended meeting was held Aug. 31 in The Center of Anna Maria Island’s gymnasium. Upon entry, attendees were given a QR code to access additional information posted on the city website and enlarged copies of the revised parking study map placed on placards around the seating area.
The parking study, the updated parking map and more parking-related information can be found at the city’s parking management page at the city website.
Opening remarks
When the meeting began at 4 p.m., Short said, “There’s two main objectives of today’s meeting. The city wants to provide all of you an update and clarify items regarding why the city is looking into the parking study, where we are with that study and what our next steps are. But more importantly, this meeting is to solicit input from our stakeholders – your thoughts, your concerns, your questions regarding our parking study.”
“This meeting is intended to be an overview. This is not exact. It is concepts, and in often cases you’ll hear generalizations, but it is not meant to be specific. So, when you look at maps and you look at a particular street, you’ll see a lot of this is still open for us to continue to evaluate. This meeting is not intended to be a debate,” Short said.
Mayor’s letter
After making his introductory remarks, Short read aloud a letter about parking in Anna Maria.
Short’s letter mentioned the need for a well-designed parking system that helps manage the pressure placed on the city’s parking capacity by tourism and Manatee County’s continued growth.
His letter notes the city wants to reduce overflow parking on narrow streets, prevent blocked driveways and address safety and emergency-access issues. The revenue generated by the proposed paid parking component would help maintain and repair the city’s streets, drainage systems and beach access points.
Updated parking presentation
Short presented an updated version of the parking study presentation that WSP consultant Christine Fanchi previously presented to the mayor and city commissioners on Aug. 11. The updated presentation included a revised and more accurate parking map than the map Fanchi previously presented.
According to the revised map, most of the streetside parking near the northwestern tip of the city along the 600, 700 and 800 blocks of North Bay Boulevard, Gladiolus Street, Fern Street, Rose Street, Jacaranda Road, Poinsettia Road and Holly Road would be mainly resident permit only, with some potential paid public parking spaces in those areas too.
According to the revised parking map, no parking would be allowed in the parallel parking spaces along Gulf Drive in front of Harry’s Grill, AMI Beach Hut, Ginny’s and Jane E’s Café and The Porch.
According to the mayor and the revised map, the parallel parking spaces along Pine Avenue would provide free parking with an enforced three-hour time limit.
The map notes the parking areas around The Center remain a work in progress.
Q and A
After a short break, Short and City Clerk Amber LaRowe spent a long time answering written and verbal questions posed by meeting attendees and those listening via Zoom.
Short said they would do their best to answer every question, but there might be questions they don’t yet have answers for.
“This is still a process for us. I want to be clear, decisions have not been made at this point,” Short said. “We do value your input, it will be evaluated, but we are going to focus on our residents and our commercial businesses, as well as the visitors. And ultimately, whatever we do, we’re going to try to balance that out as best we can.”
Short said parking data for every street in the city has been collected and evaluated.
“We have the concepts that I think makes sense, but that doesn’t mean ultimately that’s where this will end up. We just have to wait and see,” Short said.
Short cautioned the meeting attendees not to get too caught up in various parking designations listed on the revised map that are intended to provide a framework for the broader parking concepts.
When asked, Short said Fanchi’s original $11 million annual paid parking revenue estimate is expected to be much lower than that, but he did not provide an estimated paid parking revenue number.
LaRowe addressed the potential $4.50-per-hour parking rate presented by Fanchi on Aug. 11.
“I received quite a bit of angry emails about the $4.50. We’re not going to start at $4.50. I will assure you that it will not be $4.50 or any greater than $4.50. It’s just the first proposal, a discussion point, and probably should have been more vetted before it was presented,” LaRowe said.
When asked, Short said the future parking status has not yet been determined for the city-owned parking spaces near the City Pier, City Pier Park, the Bayview Plaza and the Waterfront Restaurant. Short said it hasn’t been determined yet whether the city-owned public parking spaces near the Anna Maria City Pier and City Pier Park would be free, timed parking spaces or paid parking spaces.
Short said Island Players theatergoers would not be subjected to paid parking in that city-owned parking lot.
LaRowe said the WSP consulting group and the city have identified a need to provide employee parking for approximately 143 employees who work in Anna Maria. She said that estimated figure remains subject to trial and error and will be further evaluated and revised if needed.
“We did try really hard to acknowledge the business area and their employees,” LaRowe said.
Anna Maria General Store owner and City Pier tenant Brian Seymour said, “I’m kind of a trifecta. I’m a business owner, resident and leaseholder with the city of Anna Maria.”
Seymour said he likes the revised parking map a lot more than he liked the original map presented on Aug. 11.
Seymour said he thinks LaRowe may have underestimated the number of employees who work in Anna Maria. He offered to assist the city in gathering what might be a more accurate count of those employees.
Parking permits
LaRowe said issuing two resident parking permits per household has been discussed but not finalized. This would be in addition to the driveway parking already allowed on residential properties. LaRowe said the preliminary thought is residents with resident parking permits would not pay to park when using the city’s paid parking spaces. She said parking allowances for residents’ guests might include a temporary registration process and short-term parking passes.
Vacation rental guests are not expected to receive resident parking permits from the vacation rental owner or management company. Rental guests could park for free in the rental property’s designated spaces, but that would not grant them access to resident permit parking spaces.
LaRowe said contractors might receive parking permits, but landscapers and cleaners would not be required to have parking permits.
Discounted parking permits are not currently being considered for Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach, Manatee County and other non-Anna Maria residents.
During the Aug. 11 presentation, Fanchi recommended not using physical pay stations because of the cost and the durability concerns. The paid parking payment options would include a website, QR codes, payment by text, payment by phone and physical permits, if needed.
Regarding enforcement, Short noted a parking ticket carries a $75 fine, and a new ticket can be issued every two hours for the same ongoing violation.
The revised parking map contains existing no-parking zones that will remain in effect. It was noted that specific streets – Chilson, Palm, Magnolia, Spring, Crescent, North Shore and Jacaranda – would be individually reviewed based on the street width, drainage elements and emergency access.
Northwest Bradenton resident Kim Kesten said her children attend Anna Maria Elementary School. She said she and her family are Center members and she has friends who operate businesses in Anna Maria.
Kesten expressed her concerns about non-residents who spend a lot of time in Anna Maria being subjected to three-hour parking limits and paid parking requirements that might impact how much time they spend in the city. Short acknowledged this was a scenario the city had not fully considered.
Post-meeting comments
After the meeting, Short said, “The input we got from people today will help guide us in terms of whatever direction we do end up deciding to take. We still have some homework to do.”
Related coverage: Mayor’s letter addresses parking study
