City commissioners voted Monday to raise the cost of monthly parking permits downtown, but they emphasized that free two-hour street parking is not going anywhere — at least for now.
Drivers will still be able to parallel park on the street for free for the first two hours. After that, they can pay $1 an hour for up to two more hours, plus a 45-cent service fee if they use the ParkMobile smartphone app. Hourly rates at city garages and surface lots are unchanged at $1 per hour or $6 per day.
“We’re not touching the off-street or on-street metered rates,” Traffic Operations Manager Tess Schwartz said. “The only changes we’re making are to the off-street permit parking rates.”
So what’s new? Monthly permits for most downtown parking garages and surface lots will jump from $70 to $90 on Oct. 1, and then $100 a year later. The exception is the South Tennessee Avenue lot, formerly known as Lot B, which will have a discounted rate of $50 a month.
“If there’s someone that doesn’t mind walking a few blocks, they can get a permit there at a lower rate,” Schwartz said. The South Tennessee lot is also a stop for the free Squeeze shuttle, which operates weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Fridays from 4 to 11 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 11 p.m.
The rates for existing leases will stay the same until the lease expires. The city currently rents spots to businesses and individuals, charging $35 a month for rooftop spaces and $70 for covered spaces in the Main Street garage, with negotiated rates elsewhere.
Misinformation: Inaccurate reports by two Tampa-area television outlets sparked concern on social media that the popular free parking policy was ending. Commissioner Guy LaLonde Jr. asked Schwartz to clarify the changes, saying, “As you must know, this is pretty heated. People have been blowing me up about these parking rates.”
Schwartz explained that “metered parking” refers to hourly parking — whether people pay through an app, a kiosk or a traditional meter. “We’re not changing any of the metered rates at this time,” she said. “If you have a permit — a monthly permit to park downtown in a specific lot or garage — that is what is changing.”
Other changes downtown: The city commissioned a study last year that was finalized in November. It recommended short-term, mid-term and long-term changes. Schwartz said her department has been moving forward with the short-term recommendations.
- New, simpler parking signs are being installed downtown. These include assigning different colors, names and icons to each floor of the Main Street garage. “We’ve started installing the wayfinding signage,” she said. “This is not complete. It will take us some time to roll it out, but we’ve gotten it started.”
- Electronic parking guidance systems have been ordered for the Main Street and Heritage Plaza garages. In May, the commission approved spending nearly $300,000 for the systems, which display the number of spaces available and highlight them with red or green lights. Schwartz said they will likely be installed in August.
Why things are changing: The study’s biggest finding was that the city has enough parking, but its on-street spaces are overused and its surface lots and public garages are underused. The best way to persuade people to park further away is to make it less expensive than street parking.
The Kimley-Horn report recommended ending free parking and raising street parking to $2 an hour, but business owners and the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority pushed back. Faced with a barrage of protests, commissioners have held off on enacting that recommendation for the time being.
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