A timeline of parking discussions on Gasparilla Island
The issue of parking on Gasparilla Island is not a new one. Through the years, the Boca Beacon has covered the issue as locals and county officials have tried to balance competing interests.
Below, a few assorted dates from 1982 on. The list below is not comprehensive:
December 1982: Lee County hired Dick Workman, a consultant with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, to work on a plan to fix dunes and increase the number of parking spaces at the Range Light, which had been a county park. The key part of the plan was to encourage natural landscaping; the park previously had been open beach sand all the way from the street to the Gulf.
June 1986: The State of Florida gave a $150,000 appropriation for design for what is now the parking at the Range Light. At the time, there were plans for two more lots, a 50-car lot near what is now South Beach, and a 150-car parking lot at the old Tarp n Pass Estates mobile home park. Planning would take a year.
July 9, 1986: Lee County approved an ordinance that banned parking along Gasparilla Road between Fifth Street and the county line, along Harbor Drive and along Gulf Boulevard south of the town. The fine was then $35.
January 1988: The site of Anna’s Sandwich Shop on Park Avenue got an exception for parking restrictions mandated by Lee County for its switch to becoming the Peppermill Restaurant. Locals supported variances so that street parking would be encouraged, and a surface parking lot would not be created on Park Avenue.
April 1988: GICIA Executive Director Creighton Sherman worked on a parking committee for the island. Ideas included encouraging workers to park outside downtown and more frequent use of the parking lot on at the end of Fifth Street. Steve Seidensticker also encouraged the purchase of a lot. Residents were uniformly against any additional “blacktop” style parking on the island.
October 1989: The parking lots contributed to the island by the Sharp brothers, through GICIA, were appreciated. Residents were concerned that the parking lot at Fifth Street was not being utilized by visitors, as it was not properly marked.
December 18, 1991: Lee County passed ordinance 91-35 regarding the use of parallel parking and angled parking on the island. It also designated public parking areas, balancing “increasing pressure” for parking and wishing to “encourage the use of the public parking facilities on the Island by Lee County residents and visitors.”
April 1999: Steve Boutelle, then a planner for Lee County, said that efforts to obtain state and federal funding for beach renourishment were tied to continued public access. “Without public access, the money would not be available,” Boutelle said. “It’s very important if you want to maintain eligibility for cost sharing.” He also said that if beaches were not being maintained and kept open, the state could seek reimbursement from island owners. That process would need to “certify that the beaches are open and accessible to the public.”
March 2005: Beach renourishment continued to be tied to public access to the beaches, according to Steve Boutelle of Lee County. A proposed Boca Grande Community Plan was problematic. “State funding for beach renourishment is dependent upon providing public parking through the proposed renourishment area from Boca Grande Pass to 17th Street.” He also noted that the Lee commissioners had made a commitment to maintain specific levels of parking in a contract with Florida’s DEP and would face a financial penalty if that commitment “were not upheld.” One suggestion was to have residential parking permits.
2015: An informal parking “advisory committee” was established by Lee County to suggest changes to parking ordinance 91-35 and to help bring order to beach parking.
February 10, 2015: Three options for Gilchrist parking changes were presented regarding the island. Randy Cerchie, deputy director of Lee County DOT, presented the options to county commissioners via email on February 10. Options included expanding 5th street parking to 90 spaces, and various versions of Gilchrist parking changes including parallel parking, northbound angled parking or various combinations. They were presented to Assistant County Manager Doug Meurer, Department of Transportation Director Dave Loveland, Senior Traffic Engineer Steve Jansen, Staff Engineer Bryan Miller, Ryan Bell of Johnson Engineering and Jim Banks of JMB Transportation Engineering, Inc. These options also included restrictions on parking on Gilchrist as well as a new landscaping plan for the street.
July 2015: Island residents worked with Lee County on new ordinances.
April 16, 2019: Lee County passed ordinance 19-05 amending and restating previous ordinances 86-21, 90-39 and 91-35. It prohibited parking on Gasparilla Road and Gulf Boulevard, as well as areas on Harbor Drive and Belcher Road. The ordinance also allowed for parking in “such other areas as may be designated” and established bus and RV parking on East Railroad between 5th and 7th. It included a $35 fine.
May 18, 2021: Lee County Commissioners met and unanimously passed an ordinance 21-05 that prohibited overnight parking in specific designated area for buses and recreational vehicles, within portions of Gasparilla Island.
