Letters: Parking issues
Follow Boca Grande parking issues online
The Beacon has set up a hub for all information relating to parking, including relevant documents, stories and letters to the editor from all sides and perspectives of the issue.
One street should not determine issues that affect all of the island
To the Editor:
On July 1, 2024, the majority (five) of the Boca Grande Parking Panel resigned, leaving our community with no voice or representation as it pertains to parking.
Although our rep for District One, Commissioner Kevin Ruane has publicly stated numerous times that he has met with numerous residents, he has not met with representatives of local businesses, two of the three churches and has made no effort to engage the community as a whole.
Residents who live on one street should not have the power to determine issues that affect the entire community. If you have read the Boca Beacon in the past month, I urge you to read them again. The Commissioner is making plans for our island, and we know very little about the decisions he is making without our input.
We must become our own advocates and ask, or better yet, insist that they hold a public meeting in Boca Grande in the fall. November is when most of our residents return, and business are open full time again. Any parking plan will impact our streets, our beaches, our churches and our businesses that rely on customers year-round. To consider or vote on any plan before a public meeting, is subterfuge. Let us, as a community join forces and let the full Lee County Commission know that decisions should not be based on one street on the island, Gilchrist Avenue.
I urge you to write our Lee County Commissioners and request a meeting in November in Boca Grande. However, several weeks ago Commissioner Ruane brought it up at the very end of the meeting. We cannot risk another surprise agenda item and his small group of supporters showing up and to encourage a plan our community has no say in.
Please take the time and write/email before July 29th; the next meeting is July 30th. All commissioners need to know that our community has to have a say in this issue.
The following are our Board of County Commissioners.
Chairman Mike Greenwell dist5@leegov.com
Vice Chairman Kevin Ruane dist1@leegov.com
Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass dist2@leegov.com
Commissioner Ray Sandelli dist3@leegov.com
Commissioner Brian Hamman dist4@leegov.com
Sincerely,
Jay Whipple
Boca Grande
Restore handicap access; day trippers needed for retail success
The following letter was sent to the Lee County Commissioners, as well as copied to the Boca Beacon.
To the Editor:
As a full-time resident, business owner, and member of the Boca Grande Historic Preservation Board, I sincerely request that you revisit the issue of parking in downtown Boca Grande.
My family opened our offices here in 1976. I moved to Boca Grande full time in 1984 and raised my three children here. I am a past President of the Boca Grande Chamber of Commerce.
The fact is that parking has always been a problem during the height of the “Season,” and we are well aware that we cannot survive without our seasonal residents and visitors.
Additionally, we cannot thrive without our “day trippers,” our employees and friends who live “off island” and pay $6 to cross our bridge. They do this because they love Boca Grande as much as we do.
I’m not sure why the Parking Committee recommended the outrageous restrictions on parking, but I have a good idea why so many of them resigned.
I really don’t believe this issue requires a full meeting of the Commission.
We don’t need parking restrictions, especially more parking signs and meters. Do our deputies really need to spend their time ticketing and enforcing something so petty?
The only handicap access to the beach, located at the end of West 5th Street (the street I live on), was washed away by Hurricane Idalia a year and a half ago. The best parking on the Island serves that access.
Perhaps you could focus on restoring that access, for every resident and visitor.
Respectfully,
Becky Paterson
Boca Grande
