Public Meeting Tuesday on Island Parking Reduction
Posted
Staff Report
HOLMES BEACH – While county beaches were closed for the COVID-19 crisis and city council meetings were being held via zoom, the City of Holmes Beach adopted a new parking plan that will severely reduce the number of public parking spaces for mainland residents seeking to visit the beach and surrounding businesses.
Holmes Beach commissioners agreed to a parking plan by Police Chief Bill Tokajer at the April 28 meeting. The plan removed 2,000 parking spaces from rights of way and went into effect May 4, though signs just went in the ground on Thursday. Tokajer posted the following statement to the department's Facebook Page Thursday, revising the numbers:
Today the Mayor and I went street by street to compare the parking we had last year to what we have now after the new signs have been installed.
We had 2405 on-street parking in the area within ? mile of the beach in 2019.
A new count after the new signs have been posted shows 1303 parking spots available within ? mile of the beach. This is a reduction in on-street parking of 1102 spots or approx. 45%. The 479 number is the parking sent to the state for beach renourishment total for the sections as requested.
We hope this clears up some of the inaccurate information that has been released.
We will be adding additional golf cart parking as soon as the signs are received.
We plan to have the No Parking banners removed tomorrow and begin to allow beach access parking in the areas allowed.
Thank you for your patience
William L. Tokajer
Chief of Police
More than 7,000 county residents have signed an online petition opposing the removal of the spaces. Some residents feel that cars trolling for spaces will only worsen congestion problems on the island, while others accused the council of using a public health crisis to push through an unpopular agenda.
On Tuesday, at 5 p.m., an event is scheduled to be held at Holmes Beach City Hall to allow the public to weigh in on the issue.
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