HOLMES BEACH – Parking garages are one step closer to being officially banned in Anna Maria Island’s largest city.
Commissioners have voted unanimously to pass the first reading of an ordinance banning multi-level parking structures in the city. The ordinance will have a final public hearing and vote in August.
Though parking garages are not currently an allowable use in Holmes Beach, they aren’t exactly prohibited either. Under the proposed ordinance, multi-level buildings with parking would be allowed with parking on the bottom floor. However, any parking above the bottom floor would be prohibited.
City Planner Bill Brisson said that anyone wishing to build a multi-level building with parking on the bottom and a business on an upper floor would likely have to build that structure in the city’s mixed-use commercial district, noting that the ordinance does not prohibit any other type of parking lot from the city.
Commissioner Carol Soustek said she doesn’t feel that the addition of a parking garage to the city would help solve any of the parking or traffic concerns of residents or visitors.
Mayor Judy Titsworth presented updated visitor parking numbers to commissioners. She said there are 775 parking spaces available at beach accesses and other public parking areas, another 81 parking spaces at the public beach, 3,702 parking spaces at vacation rental properties and 225 spaces at motels in the city, for a total of 4,783 visitor parking spaces.
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