SEBASTIAN — During an hour-long public workshop at Sebastian City Hall to address plans to rebuild three downtown streets, residents urged city officials to reconsider adding parking along Cleveland Street. A parking study performed last year showed the city has enough parking to handle needs but that parking should be better delineated.
The city has plans to spend about $450,000 on rebuilding, repaving and otherwise improving Cleveland, Martin and Washington streets, along with addressing drainage on Indian River Drive.
Maria Jovanovich, who lives on Cleveland near Indian River Drive, begged City Manager Al Minner and engineer Frank Watanabe to get rid of the planned diagonal parking on the south side of Cleveland.
Currently, no on-street parking is permitted along the south side of that street.
It’s “totally needless,” Jovanovich said. She added that the city’s plan for adding parking is “killing our way of life.”
“I’m not an engineer, but this is horrendous,” she said.
Jovanovich also asked the city to leave Cleveland bumpy, which would remind her of the street on which she grew up.
Fellow resident Ben Hocker asked city officials whether it could be possible to amend the plans to either convert the diagonal parking on the south side of Cleveland to parallel parking or eliminate the parking altogether on that side of the street.
Minner said they would take the suggestions under advisement and present the comments to the City Council next week.
Minner explained to the group of about seven residents who attended the workshop that while the parking study says the city doesn’t lack parking. However, he said, the business community in the downtown and waterfront districts have expressed a need for more parking.
The city manager said it is the city’s job to blend the needs of all and come up with a compromise that meets the most needs.
The improvement plan for Martin Street differs from that of Cleveland and Washington. Martin will only be rebuilt and repaved.
Cleveland and Washington will also be rebuilt and repaved, but on-street parking is also expected to be added to the roads, along with beautification elements such as benches and pedestrian lighting.
Drainage improvements will also be incorporated into the work, focusing on the intersections of Indian River Drive at Cleveland and Washington.
“We’re pretty close to 100 percent to bid this,” engineer Frank Watanabe told the workshop’s audience. Designers are waiting for permits from St. Johns River Water Management District. “The roadways are deficient. They are failing.”
City Manager Al Minner expects to present the workshop’s feedback to the City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 11. The council could decide to send the projects back for more review or approve the plans as is.
Once the council approves the plans, the city can then bid out the project.
Watanabe said it’s possible award a construction contract in March and construction could begin by summer. Work is expected to take, at the most, 120 days, he said.
