NSB task force: Charge for beachside parking

Published: Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 9:57 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 10:28 p.m.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Establishing a fund to pay for beachside parking enforcement, equipment and maintenance is an immediate recommendation from a task force appointed by the City Commission.

"Immediate," in this case, means within a year.

The money that goes into the fund would be provided in part by the sale of a city-owned lot on Columbus Avenue as well as by charging fees for the parking spaces the city leases from Coronado Community United Methodist Church and businesses.

Those recommendations all came from the Parking Systems Task Force, which has been meeting since August to come up with recommendations on how to solve parking issues on the beachside, including a lack of spaces in the Flagler Avenue area.

The Columbus Avenue property used to be home to a city fire station and is zoned for single-family homes.

"I think it could convert to four or five residential lots," Assistant City Manager Khalid Resheidat said.

Resheidat said the city is working on getting the land appraised.

The task force discussed recommending signs be put up on Flagler Avenue limiting parking there to two hours from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Establishing payment kiosks or metered parking on Flagler is an option, too.

"It seems like you either go with one or the other," said Travous Dever, a non-voting member of the task force who is also a member of the city's Planning and Zoning Board.

Both of those alternatives are likely to be talked about further when the task force holds its final meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Brannon Center, 105 S. Riverside Drive.

Adele Aletti-Hodson, a member of the task force who owns a business on Flagler Avenue and is president of the beachside district's merchants group, said deciding where employees could park needed to be addressed before the city either charges for parking or puts up the "two-hour" limit signs.

She said there are 26 businesses on Flagler with a total of about 45 employees that have "zero parking," most grandfathered in before more regulations were put on the books.

Hiring an outside firm to enforce existing or new parking regulations was listed as a short-term recommendation to the City Commission, meaning it should be implemented within five years.

"I don't think you can hire anybody until you have the funds and regulations in place to enforce," Dever said.

The task force listed building a parking garage as a long-term recommendation. Depending on the type of structure built, a garage would provide between 400 to 475 spaces and cost anywhere from $10,000 to $17,500 a space, according to an earlier presentation given to the task force.

The city doesn't have that kind of money to spend, and Resheidat has said the venture would likely have to be a public-private partnership.

The task force's final recommendations are scheduled to be presented to the City Commission on April 9.


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