Boca Grande takes parking discussion to Ft. Myers
A motion to move forward with the Gasparilla Island Parking Ordinance amendment, and direct it to an anticipated May 20 public hearing, was passed 3-2 with Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass and Commissioner David Mulicka voting against the directive during the Tuesday, April 1 meeting.
“I personally don’t want to go to the Temp, and have dinner and decide to have dessert, and get a $300 parking ticket because I was there for two and half hours,” Mulicka said, to a round of applause from the gathered audience. “There’s just a lot of unfinished business and we don’t want to create unintended consequences by trying to move too quickly without having some of these things shaken out, in my opinion.”
The ordinance as it stands now would restrict parking downtown to two hours, only allow parking for churches from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays on the Gilchrist median between 3rd and 5th streets and restrict beach parking to less than 250 or so spaces. The initial draft was written (and is still officially written) to go to a hearing on April 15, but commissioners, and county administration are expected to bring it back in May.
County staff indicated that they needed more time to work on the details of the amendment, including specifics such as enforcement of proposed parking restrictions. Golf cart parking, employee parking and church holidays that are not on Sunday also remain unaddressed in the ordinance.
“Once we put this together, that’s all great, but if we can’t enforce it or it doesn’t get enforced, it doesn’t work then,” Pendergrass said.
Pendergrass also brought up the proposed increase in parking fines, asking if the number was consistent with other areas in Lee County, to which county staff answered that the proposed number would be “a high fine.”
Nearly 30 people from Boca Grande went to the County Commissioners meeting in Fort Myers to speak during the public comment period, as well as two attorneys hired to represent each respective side of the issue.
Business representation included South Beach Co-Owners Bart DeStefano and Marco Meola; Barbara Anne, of Barbara Anne’s Jewelry; Nikki Heimann from the Pink Pony; Sue Sligar of Gilchrist Interiors; Boo Gemes of Boo Gemes Collection, Dusty Hopkins, owner of the Boca Beacon; Duane Zobrist, owner of Gasparilla Adventures; Robert Ring, Boca Grande Chamber Vice President; and Boca Grande Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Gary Cross.
Island residents also spoke, as well as representatives for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Lighthouse United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church.
During public comment, resident Mary O’Bannon read a quote from Boca Grande Fire Department Chief C.W. Blosser regarding the validity of safety concerns stemming from parking density on Gilchrist Avenue. “Fire Chief Blosser has stated this morning he has yet to have an issue with getting down any beach street to save anyone,” O’Bannon read.
Commissioner Kevin Ruane was in attendance via Zoom and declined the offer to have a public meeting in Boca Grande regarding the ordinance.
“To me it just seems disingenuous if we’re not going to move forward with this, and continue to kick the can down, because we had a parking panel that did that for 10 years and I want to see this move forward,” Ruane said.
“Changes can be made to the amendment at the upcoming public meeting,” Lee County Manager Dave Harner clarified. “Any commissioner could make a motion to amend, and then obviously he would have to get the board to agree,” he said.
It was discussed that the public hearing will be during the Lee Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, May 20. Meeting agendas are typically sent out around a week in advance. Subscribe to Lee County emails at leegov.com/resources/Pages/newsletters.aspx. For all news stories about the issue, visit
bocabeacon.com/parking
