Council scraps surplus parking ordinance
It took three meetings, but the Fort Myers Beach Town Council ultimately abandoned an ordinance to change regulations on surplus parking.
After more than an hour of discussing the proposed surplus parking ordinance, 17-04, designed to create a registry of businesses that could have surplus parking and require an additional use permit for it, council unanimously agreed: it was too complex, and there wasn’t a point in passing it.
“Why don’t we just drop it and leave things as they are. Passing it as it is creates a nightmare,” Council Member Anita Cereceda said.
One of the biggest issues several council members had with the ordinance was that town staff would not really be able to determine if a property owner was renting out all of their spaces for money, rather than just the surplus spaces, creating a problem for the customers and tenants of the building.
“We have no enforcement. Absolutely none. I don’t understand why we’d put an ordinance on the books that we can’t enforce,” said Mayor Dennis Boback.
Code enforcement can’t technically address that concern now, but the council didn’t want a pointless regulation passed.
Council Member Joanne Shamp wanted to protect the business owners who are renting a space in the town’s larger plazas. These plazas often have excess parking and rent those, but are supposed to keep a certain number for the businesses’ customers to use. However, that can be an issue.
“Key Estero Shops is a mess. It’s all surplus. Every spot is taken for the beach,” Vice Mayor Tracey Gore said. “If we can’t control the ones we have, how can we control these others?
I think we need to show we can handle the codes in the books before we move on.”
According to the land development code (LDC), parking lots that have 10 or more spaces may rent out surplus spaces to the public during “peak times.”
However, confusion lies in the use of the word “may,” and an exact definition of surplus parking and peak times – as well as just how town staff will enforce any kind of regulation.
Some landowners and building owners are already renting spaces out without town approval. However, businesses are supposed to acquire a use permit for rental parking.
A parking lot is typically an accessory use to the business it serves – as in, it is meant to be used by customers for that business. By renting parking, it adds an additional use outside of servicing the business, Council Member Tracey Gore said, so the businesses need to get a use permit to do that.
But even with the ordinance, the town would not really be able to strictly enforce surplus parking. Those spaces would have to have separate signage specifying that those spots were open to the public for paid park – but would would happen if a businesses’ customer spaces were full and a customer used the surplus spot to go inside? Or if a business still rented more than the surplus, how would town code enforcement officers be able to tell which vehicles were customers inside the business or going to the beach? They couldn’t really, Kara Stewart, Community Development Director, said.
“What is the point then ? If XYZ can rent out all 13 spaces I don’t understand the point,” Shamp said.
The proposed ordinance also brought forth a sector of the business community who felt it was unfair: the owners and operators of beach parking lots.
Chris Primo of Norm’s Beach Parking spoke during public comment against passing the ordinance, because he – and several other parking lot operators who spoke – felt that the ordinance allowed other island businesses to circumvent the work that Primo and others had to do to be permitted to run their own lots.
“By allowing everybody to be in the parking business, it mitigates the work we have done,” Primo said. “I have employees who depend on me to run a profitable business. I think letting anybody be in the business is not fair, after all the work we’ve gone to.”
The full-time parking lots are required to meet standards for lighting, buffering, signage and monitoring.
“After all the hoops and the money spent to develop a parking lot, is this to mean if my business is done I can just start selling hardware or open a restaurant?” said Fred Payne of Sunshine Parking.
The subtle dig was directed to Graham Belger, owner of The Goodz Hardware, who has spoke to council repeatedly to plead his case. He has been renting out a few spaces for beachgoers for several years, which he said has been a boost for him from the lack of revenue during Estero Boulevard construction. When he was cited however, he met with town staff in an attempt to bring his parking lot up to code. He doesn’t have more than 10 spots, however, and his parking area backs out into a residential street, banning him from rental parking.
He presented a petition of 30 signatures to council from his neighbors, including a full letter from immediate neighbor John Richards, who all supported his use of his parking lot for rental parking despite the back-out exit. Richards even said in the letter, read into public record, that the rental helped prevent beach goers from parking in his yard and on his grass.
“We want our visitors telling their friends about our beautiful scenery, not our traffic problems,” Belger said.
Unfortunately for Belger, however, the no-action by council still prohibits him from renting spaces.
Moving forward, the council agreed it needed to look more holistically at parking on the island and what could be done to make it more easily-identifiable and navigable to visitors. Shamp hopes the council can develop a comprehensive parking plan for the island as off-season draws near.
“Council needs to make some policy direction. If it’s council’s wish to eliminate surplus, need to look at the effect of that because there are some facilities providing a service right now,” Stewart said.