LAKELAND, Fla. — Lakeland might become one of the latest cities in the region to start charging for downtown street parking.
Right now, folks get a two-hour grace period. And while most businesses and customers seem to like that arrangement, the city says it has to start planning ahead as it tries to manage its own success and popularity.
Like other cities, a solution they're now considering is taking away what has been free parking in some areas where demand for the spaces is highest.
“Well, it's really nice. Especially the two hours. It's awesome. Gives you enough time to actually go in someplace and come back out,” Steve Almos said.
Almos and his wife Carole were pretty happy to find one of Lakeland's coveted free-for-two-hour parking spaces when they came downtown on Thursday.
However, the downtown lunchtime regulars say if they had to start paying for parking, they might just keep driving and go elsewhere.
“The exception might be if they gave you leeway on the parking time,” Carole said. “If they gave you, say, an hour, even. Free parking. And then you pay? Sure, you could run in and get a cup of coffee and a sandwich and then be on your way.”
“It's all about the churn. These are all shared parking spaces by all of the businesses,” Julie Townsend, the executive director of Lakeland’s Downtown Development Authority, said.
She says the idea is in its infancy.
Still, their study found local workers are taking up a lot of the free parking spaces that could be used by customers.
One suggestion, she said, might be to start charging for downtown street spaces, but make nearby parking garages, which currently charge a fee, free for the first two hours.
“It's a constant evolution,” Townsend said. “There is no one single fix and then we're done.”
Proponents say the idea behind paid parking is to incentivize people to move on and give more people a chance to come downtown to visit, eat, and shop.
But some businesses are worried that customers don't want to swallow the added expense just to pick up a quick item.
Yohani Santana owns a small restaurant and café downtown and charges just two dollars for a cup of coffee.
“It's gonna become like six dollars,” said Santana. “Two hours that you're here with a friend to drink some coffee and it's going to become a six dollar cup of coffee. Who's gonna come?”
Townsend says if any changes are made they would not be for another year or two.
Local workers were also already pushing back hard on a potential monthly parking pass increase.
In some cases, the fee would go from $35 a month up to $80.
Townsend says they understand that for some that may be tough to budget for, so they’re working on a plan that would spread that increase out Incrementally over several years.
“Honestly, you want a parking problem in your downtown,” said Townsend. “If you don't have a parking problem in your downtown your downtown is not thriving.”