HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlorida Today Article #2 (2)By Dave Berman Posted Sept. 11, 2011
Written by
DAVE BERMAN
FLORIDA TODAY
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Kim Mathewes of Howell, Mich., puts quarters in a parking meter in front of the Cocoa Beach Pier. Paid parking adds up to more than $1 million a year in Cocoa Beach and Indialantic.
/ Rik Jesse, FLORIDA TODAY
Talking about parking
The Cocoa City Council will consider changes in off-street parking rules when it meets at 7 tonight at Cocoa City Hall, 65 Stone St. Proposed changes in on-street parking, including
the parking meter issue, will be discussed at a future meeting.
COCOA -- — Emma Kirkpatrick, who manages Ossario Bakery & Cafe, is tired of seeing the parking spots near her popular restaurant on Brevard Avenue in Cocoa Village occupied all day by
other merchants, leaving little room for shoppers and diners. She's also not happy about double-parked delivery vehicles, causing congestion for motorists trying to drive down the shopping
district's main street.
So Kirkpatrick is glad that Cocoa city officials are taking action. The Cocoa City Council is poised to approve new parking rules for downtown that will limit parking times to as little
as 90 minutes on some
downtown streets and create special loading zones designed to eliminate the double-parked delivery and courier trucks.
But perhaps more important for the average visitor to the area, it gives the council
authority to put meters on city streets. The city says that meters would both improve the turnover of spaces and make some money for the city.
If the Cocoa City Council goes ahead with the parking meter plan, it would follow several other Brevard County communities down that road. Cocoa Beach and Indialantic have had meters
for years near their beach areas, and they now generate hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in revenue.
Cape Canaveral plans to install meters near its beaches this fall.
Kirkpatrick, for one, would support meters for Cocoa, saying it would be the best way to enforce parking time limits, rather than depending on a system such as placing chalk marks on
vehicle tires and returning later in the day to see if the vehicle still is there.
Not everyone is sold on the parking meter idea, though.
"I'm not real fond of the idea," said Mike Lister, owner of Caroline's House of Records on Brevard Avenue. "I think one of the big attractions of the village is free parking and ample
parking for people. I think that this particular idea is going to hurt business down here."
But Stephen Koser, a 29-year-old registered nurse from Melbourne, who was picking up an album at Lister's shop, said he personally wouldn't mind feeding a meter in Cocoa Village -- as
long as that resulted in making it easier to find a parking spot.
John Durkee, co-owner of The Pear Tree gift and home décor shop nearby, worries that parking meters could drive away customers to places with free, plentiful parking areas, such as The
Avenue Viera. He said the city might be better off finding a way to enforce its existing parking time limits on downtown streets without resorting to meters.
"It's a challenging thing," Durkee said.
City council members recognize that challenge as they try to strike a balance of attracting more customers to the Cocoa Village boutiques, galleries and restaurants, while dealing with
the need of shop owners to have parking for their employees and to receive deliveries.
"I wouldn't want to stop the Miller Lite truck from coming down there," Councilor Clarence Whipple said during a recent discussion of the parking issue.
After more a year of discussion of the issue in Cape Canaveral, the city is about to find out how its residents, tourists and business owners react to having paid parking there.
The city plans to install parking pay stations involving a total of 213 spaces on 15 streets leading from State Road A1A to the beach, as well as on Harbor Drive, a single-family residential
area off the beach.
Under current plans, starting Dec. 1, parking will cost $1 an hour at those sites, but a free annual beach parking pass will be available for city residents who pay property taxes there.
Fines for violators are still to be determined by the Cape Canaveral City Council, with enforcement by Brevard County Sheriff's Office's Cape Canaveral Precinct.
Todd Morley, building official for Cape Canaveral's Community Development Department and project manager for the parking meters, said the meters are intended to help offset the costs
of maintaining the beach and neighboring areas. The city estimates it will to raise $100,000 a year with the meters.
Cocoa Community Development Planning Manager Steve Belden, who worked with other city staff and community members studying the issue in his city, said the downtown parking debate "has
been an ongoing issue for quite a while."
He said the biggest unknown is how the city council would deal with the parking meter issue. That includes where the city might put the meters, how much parking would cost, whether the
city should hire a private company to administer the program in return for a cut of the revenue and what to do with the money the city collects.
Among the options under study, Belden said, is using revenue generated by meters along Cocoa Village streets to help pay for a downtown parking garage, "when and if there is demand in
the future." Other options could include putting the money back into Cocoa Village for such things as landscaping, benches, informational signs and other amenities to improve the overall
aesthetics of the area.
Contact Berman at 321-360-1016 or dberman@floridatoday.com.