ANNA MARIA – There may soon be a new paid public parking lot in Anna Maria for beachgoers and other visitors.
On Aug. 14, the Anna Maria Planning and Zoning Board voted 5-0 in favor of recommending city commission approval for a paid parking lot at 9806 Gulf Drive at the corner of Gulf Drive and Magnolia Avenue. City commissioners will next consider the proposal.
Easy Parking Group owner/operator Josh LaRose presented the site plan approval request to the P&Z board on behalf of the property owner, JRHAMI LLC. The Florida Division of Corporations lists Bradenton resident Jerry Robert Hynton as the LLC’s registered agent and manager. Hynton is a pediatric dentist in Bradenton.
LaRose’s Sarasota-based company currently operates at least one similar paid parking lot in Anna Maria and has operated similar parking lots in Bradenton Beach. LaRose also operated the now-defunct Old Town Tram shuttle service in Bradenton Beach that was partially funded by the Community Redevelopment Agency.
Included in the planning board meeting packet was a memo written by City Planner Ashley Austin. According to the memo, the site plan proposes 22 paid parking spaces in the shell-covered parking lot, including one designated accessible parking space.
LaRose said the parking lot is currently blocked off to the public but some of the existing parking spaces are used by Ginny’s and Jane E’s Café & Gift Shop employees who work across the street. He said parking spaces would still be provided for those employees during daytime hours and the remaining spaces would be open to the public. Ginny’s and Jane E’s closes daily at 3 p.m.
Austin’s memo notes the paid parking lot will provide additional public parking for beachgoers and those visiting the restaurants, retail shops and other businesses in that area.
The site plan proposes one payment kiosk and six parking management signs that feature QR codes that allow for parking payments made using a cell phone. Parking lot patrons will enter and exit the parking lot along Magnolia Avenue.
During the Aug. 14 meeting, Austin said parking lots are a permitted use in the city’s Residential/Office/Retail (ROR) zoning designation but the proposed use requires a city commission-approved site plan.
The site plan includes city-required landscape buffering along the western edge of the property and additional non-required landscape buffering along the southern edge of the parking lot property.
At the request of neighboring property owner Bob Dwyer, with LaRose in agreement, the non-required southern landscape buffering will be removed from the site plan because it would block a long-used secondary entry point to Dwyer’s residential properties at 109 and 113 Magnolia Ave.
When asked, LaRose said the parking rate would likely be in the $5- to $7-dollar-per-hour range and possibly $30 for an entire day, with potential increases during holidays.
Regarding enforcement, LaRose said the parking lot would be privately enforced by Easy Parking Group employees who use written warnings to educate violators and the booting or towing of vehicles when repeat or flagrant parking violations occur.
