Photo: Kaila Jones
Someone needs to explain to me: What, exactly, does the City Council hope to accomplish by spending up to $90,000 to have a local engineering firm study our beachside parking situation?
We already know there’s a problem, especially along Ocean Drive in the Central Beach business district, at least for a few hours each day for a few months each year.
We already know the causes of the problem, which was compounded by the negligence of city officials, who, more than a decade ago, approved the plans for both the Vero Beach Hotel & Spa and Costa d’Este Beach Resort & Spa without first demanding these businesses provide parking for their employees.
And we already know the possible remedies – metered parking along Ocean Drive, shuttle service to and from lots at Riverside Park, installing center-street parking along Cardinal Drive and, ultimately, the construction of a municipal parking garage.
It’s also possible the city could do nothing, which, other than occasionally responding to beachside business owners’ complaints by see-sawing between two-hour and three-hour parking time limits, is how Vero Beach officials have been dealing with the problem for years.
A new study isn’t going to change anything.
Nothing will change until we have a take-charge City Council that possesses the political courage to tackle the problem head-on – even if it means spending more money than anyone wants to – and the vision to see beyond the shortsightedness of those who refuse to accept that keeping Vero the Vero of 20 years ago is no longer practical.
Maybe you’ve noticed all those new housing developments out west, where construction can be found from the South County to Sebastian. Have you thought about how all that growth will impact the Central Beach business district?
The people who buy those homes will find their way across the bridges in search of dining, entertainment, shopping and the beaches. They’ll want to enjoy the seaside pleasures offered along Ocean Drive, and they’re sure to bring family members and friends who come to visit them.
They’ll all need a place to park.
The same goes for the increasing numbers of tourists who flock to the island each year, as Vero Beach continues to draw raves on social-media sites promoting top places to retire.
Like it or not, the secret is out.
Doing nothing remains an option for now, but not for long, because even more people driving more cars will be looking for parking spaces along Ocean Drive next year.
Eventually, in the not-too-distant future, the beachside parking problem could become untenable – to a point where we lose the charm of Ocean Drive, with its wonderful mix of upscale shops, boutiques and eateries, and our quality of life is diminished.
Think about it: How can these merchants turn profits if their customers stop coming in because they can’t find a convenient place to park? And if these businesses are forced out, what will replace them?
The issue needs to be addressed now, probably with some combination of actions, because there’s no cure-all solution:
- While paid on-street parking probably would discourage many hotel and restaurant employees from occupying the shop-front spaces needed by Ocean Drive merchants, some shoppers might consider it a nuisance, and the meters or kiosks could change the feel of the Central Beach business district, at least until everyone gets used to it.
- The discontinued Riverside Park shuttles proved to be a total failure, but only because hotel and restaurant management, fearing increased costs and potential liability, refused to make riding them a condition of employment. It’s a concept worth revisiting, though, if management gets on board.
- Installing center-street parking along Cardinal Drive would add more than 30 spaces, but they would have little impact on the business-day parking shortage north of Beachland Boulevard. Many of the people who shop along Ocean Drive either can’t or won’t walk blocks to get to their destination.
That brings us to the Big Kahuna of beachside parking solutions, a long-term fix that will be costly, difficult to justify and, again, not help everyone.
A parking garage.
Late September, Barbara Thompson offered to sell to the city the .39-acre parcel now occupied by the Super Stop convenience store, located on Cardinal Drive, immediately north of Camelia Lane and across the street from The Tides restaurant.
She wanted $2.4 million. The city passed, even though City Manager Jim O’Connor admitted “there are limited options over there,” especially land-purchase options the city can afford or is willing to pay for.
O’Connor went on to say buying the land and building a three-level, 120-space parking garage would’ve cost roughly $7 million, and that didn’t include the long-term maintenance expense of operating a structure on the beach.
Certainly, that would’ve been a sizable investment, especially for a project that only partially addressed the problem.
As O’Connor pointed out at the time, Cardinal Drive doesn’t have a parking problem, and the property is located at the south end of the business district, which might be too far to walk for people whose destination is at Sexton Plaza or north of Beachland Boulevard.
Probably, O’Connor was right, just as he was correct to remind everyone that our beachside parking shortage is a problem for only a few hours each day, for only a few months each year and, really, only along Ocean Drive.
Those few hours and those few months, however, mean everything to Ocean Drive merchants, who will struggle to stay in business if those seasonal sales dissipate – even as the number of people who move to, live seasonally and visit Vero Beach increases each year.
And it will.
We don’t need a study to tell us what we already know about the beachside parking situation. We know the problem, know the cause of the problem and know the possible solutions.
What we need is for the City Council to tackle a problem that won’t go away.
