SARASOTA, Fla. — Downtown Sarasota is Mark Klecka’s slice of paradise.
“We’re able, just a couple minutes away, we walk down here. It’s a lot of fun,” he said.
But when he meets his friends and family at their go-to spots, it has become a little complicated.
The reason? Parking.
The city recently made changes for enforcement hours.
“Just to me personally, it doesn’t make sense,” Klecka said.
Paid parking still starts at 8 a.m. but has been extended to midnight on the street every day except Sundays. Free parking is available on Sundays until 1 p.m. Then you will have to pay for your spot on the street or lot.
And if you want to park in the city garages at any time, it also comes at a cost.
“I understand paid parking, but I think there’s other ways it could be handled like validating parking,” he said.
In addition, the cost of all parking citations has increased by $5. Kleca says these changes will affect more than him and his neighbors. They will also affect the businesses they go to on a weekly basis.
“Sundays were always free, and it was kind of like that little gift. It was I kind of thought that was a little ‘here you go,'” he said. “One p.m. on. It’s like, it’s hitting the brunch people. It’s hitting, which is affecting local businesses.”
The changes, according to Broxton Harvey, parking general manager for the city, will help fund the parking division’s infrastructure upgrades city wide.
“There was a need to make some capital improvements, like elevators need to be replaced inside of the garages,” Harvey said. “We have meters on the streets that have to be replaced. We also have way-finding signage that we want to install, as well as updating our parking enforcement vehicles as well.”
In addition to using the revenue from the parking changes for new meters or garage elevators that are nearly a decade old, the city says they will be able to add more signage and upgrade parking enforcement vehicles as well.
And some of the meters and garage elevators he is talking about are due for an upgrade.
“We actually look at it when we replace meters — if they’re approximately between the ages of seven to 10 years old, we look at if the technology is there, we have more breakdowns, more repairs,” he said. “So what we’re looking at is within the year of 2028, which would be almost 10 years since the meters have been on the street, it would be time to actually look at replacing those meters and these expansion and extension of ours and these additional revenues regarding fees for citations.”
In exchange for the parking changes that are happening in downtown Sarasota, the city has actually made the Burns Square Lot free to park in for up to three hours.
“Paid parking is only about 10 to 12% of our spaces that we have on street,” Harvey said. “Now that doesn’t take into account the garages and the parking lots, but when we’re talking about actual on street spaces, it’s only about 12% that are actually paid.”
While he understands that paid parking goes to support the much-needed upgrades in public lots and garages, Kleca says he would rather walk than park in a spot he will pay more for.
“It’s easy to go in and say this is how much money we’re going to make by doing this. It’s harder to go ahead and provide proof that how much business is being lost,” Kleca said.
These changes are now being enforced, but they won’t stop Kleca from enjoying downtown Sarasota — they might just change how he gets there.
Residents who need an extra parking spot near where they live downtown or around St. Armands Circle can apply for a permit.
