North 7th Street will be converted to a one-way road with 26 parking spaces added
There was good news and bad news regarding parking in historic downtown Fernandina Beach at the city commission workshop and regular meeting Tuesday.
The good news is that city commissioners agreed to make North 7th Street a one-way road that will be able to provide 26 more parking spaces.
The bad news is that there is no more city owned property for new parking downtown except for the recreation land south of the marina that is currently being planned as a waterfront park.
The parking debate - is there enough, where can the city build more and does the city need a parking garage - went for more than 90 minutes taking up the entire workshop and part of the regular meeting when drawings of the waterfront park were presented.
Commissioner Chip Ross led the workshop discussion first detailing the city's Comprehensive Plan that states the city will ensure "an adequate supply of vehicle parking to serve downtown businesses," but that adequate supply is left as not defined in the plan.
"Do we believe there is adequate parking or do we believe there is a problem? If you can't define (adequate parking) you can't solve the problem," Ross said.
The heart of the parking debate took place when Thomas and Hutton Principal and Land Planning/Landscape Architecture Manager Ryan Thompson reviewed concept drawings of the waterfront park south of the Atlantic Seafood building.
Mayor Bradley Bean, an advocate of the waterfront park plan, asked the designers about the boat trailer parking spaces allotted in the revised design.
"We maintain all our boat trailer spots and we maintain all our parking, is that correct?" Bean said. "I don't want to lose any parking spots. That's very important to me and it's very important to the community."
The designers told Bean there were 17 boat trailer parking spaces in the current design.
Charter boat Captain Allen Mills was the first of five speakers to make the case that more parking spaces to accommodate downtown businesses should take priority over using the land for a waterfront park.
"We have the best parking area for this downtown community than any downtown area. For the past seven years there have been 180 cars parked in lots C & D. This island is growing and everybody wants to park downtown," Mills said. "We are park rich. None of our parks, we have 9, are full occupancy. Why do we need another park?"
Mac Morris said the massive Wildlight development near I-95 "will pressure us for more parking." He told commissioners that the gravel pits that were used for petanque should be left in place and used as additional spaces.
The elaborate landscaping and added multi-functional performance stage, restrooms and small playground would be an added burden on city taxpayers, argued Mike Sharp.
"You're proposing a destination without providing additional parking," Sharp said. "What happened to the low maintenance plan? That (the plan) is going to be expensive to maintain. We pay enough (taxes), it's time to cut that back."
One speaker supporting the waterfront park plan was Fernandina Main Street Director Lisa Finkelstein.
"People will find a place to park. Tens of thousands of people came downtown last week and managed to find a place to park," she said. "If people want to visit something they will find a way."
Vice Mayor David Sturges said the initial waterfront park plans should be revised to include access to the planned grassy area that will replace petanque courts in order for more parking as needed.
The commission then agreed to proceed with further developing the waterfront park plans.
There were scarce other options to be considered to add more parking during the commission workshop.
City staff identified a privately owned space that the city could consider leasing for parking.
The lot located on South 5th Street would have room for 20 spaces.
"It's something to consider. They're agreeable to lease this to the city at a reasonable cost," said Operations Director Jermiah Glisson. "but the owner could at any time say we're going in another direction and the city would have to vacate that lot. It's an opportunity that we could pursue."
Mayor Bean maintained that Fernandina Beach does not have a parking problem.
"There's never been a case where I've gone downtown, I've gone busiest times, on Friday nights, Saturday nights and there's never been a single example of where I haven't been able to find within the four blocks of downtown between Beech and Alachua," Bean said.
Commissioner Darron Ayscue said defining adequate parking was a difficult question to answer.
"It really depends on the day and time," he said. "There's times when it's really busy and there's times when it's not so bad. Peak season, summer time, it's going to be difficult to find parking. But sometimes during the off season you can park on Centre Street."
The idea of building a parking garage failed to garner support from commissioners because of the lack of property and the cost to build it which Commissioner Ross estimated at between $7 million to $9 million.
Public comment on the parking issue included concerns that relying on downtown residential streets for parking would eventually ruin the historic character of nearby neighborhoods.
"I would be very careful about our continuous conversations about cramming parking (downtown). Once we lose our intimate spaces on this island, Fernandina will be gone," said Paul Lorre.
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