The St. Petersburg City Council on May 6 adopted
a new parking plan for downtown residents, under which any downtown
resident may obtain a permit for unlimited parking on most (but
not all) streets in the resident's immediate neighborhood. Here
are the highlights of the plan:
The downtown for the purposes of parking
has been divided into five zones. The zone that includes the
Huntington Townhomes is 1A, which extends from 1st Avenue N to
5th Avenue N, between Tampa Bay and the west side of Mirror Lake
(roughly 7th Street N).
The resident parking stickers will be good
only in parking spaces that otherwise have a two-hour time limit.
Signs will be changed to say something like, "Two Hour Parking
Except with Resident Permit."
The stickers will not apply to parking
spaces that are metered or have a time limit of less than two
hours. In Zone 1A, this will apply mostly to 1st Avenue N and
NE.
Any resident
of Zone 1A may obtain a resident parking sticker for any registered
vehicle. City staff had proposed that a resident show some hardship
before a sticker could be issued, but the City Council deleted
that provision from the ordinance. At a public hearing on the
ordinance, several speakers opposed the hardship provision and
no one spoke in its favor.
The parking stickers will cost $15 per year
per vehicle.
The city staff retains the authority to designate
which spaces have a two-hour limit, and which have no limit at
all. Right now, though, the staff has no plans to add any more
two-hour spaces. So, the unlimited spaces on 4th Avenue N and
2nd Street N will remain that way. This means that anyone can
use these spaces for an unlimited time, with or without a resident
sticker. In the future, those spaces could be changed to a two-hour
limit. A sticker would then be needed to park in those spaces
for more than two hours.
Currently, the two-hour limit applies only
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. At the public hearing,
some residents complained that the real parking problems arise
on weekends, when special events are held on the waterfront.
This could get even worse when the Baywalk project opens. The
city staff has the authority to change the effective hours, if
the need arises.
The ordinance does not have any provision
for temporary parking stickers that could be issued to guests
or visitors of downtown residents.
The hours and location for obtaining resident
stickers have not yet been set.
