FORT PIERCE — Finding a parking spot in downtown Fort Pierce on a busy weekend has become a growing challenge, and city officials are now taking a closer look at potential solutions.
City leaders say the issue has been building over time as development has reshaped the downtown area. Commissioner Michael Broderick, a former member of the city’s parking committee, pointed to a steady decline in available spaces.
"Since then, the net loss due to King's Landing and other developments that have come forward has caused a net loss of approximately 300 of those parking spaces, which puts us somewhere in the vicinity of 1,850, and right around there, it's about 250 spaces lost," Broderick said.
With fewer spaces available, attention has turned to long-term infrastructure solutions. Parking committee Chairman Ryan Collins said discussions have increasingly focused on constructing a centralized garage.
"We've identified the J.C. Penney parking lot as the most viable options. There's previous plans in place. There's been a lot of discussion on that that's where it should go. It makes sense to be close to the marina, especially if the future plans include redoing Marina Square and developing that. It needs to happen before any of that. We need to have something in place for parking before any more parking is coming," Collins said.
While there appears to be agreement on the need for additional capacity, funding remains a significant obstacle. Broderick outlined the financial scale of such a project.
"The consensus seems to be that we need a garage that's going to have a capacity somewhere in the vicinity of 500 vehicles. At $30,000 a parking spot, you don't need a calculator to figure out that that's $15 million of money that the city of Fort Pierce doesn't have, except in the capacity of bonding capability," he said.
Even so, Broderick suggested the city should move forward with early planning so it is prepared when funding becomes available.
"I see no reason why we can't currently commit to at least getting into the planning stages of a parking garage. So when the funding is available, we've got plans sitting here on the desk ready to go. It was mentioned that there were plans drafted years ago. Those plans are about 15 years old. So those plans aren't worth a heck of a lot of us to us currently. But I'm suggesting is that we would want to get into the design phase of this with plans ready to bid, not just aesthetic plans, not just pictorials, all that, but hard plans ready to go out to bid to secure bids to construct a new parking garage," he said.
Beyond the number of spaces, officials say how those spaces are used is also a concern. Collins said a lack of enforcement has allowed some vehicles to occupy spots for extended periods, limiting turnover for businesses and visitors.
"We've acknowledged as a board that there is no enforcement basically at all in the city of Fort Pierce for parking downtown. This creates a lot of problems for business owners. The studies have pointed to the fact that parking spot is worth three or four hundred dollars per spot for businesses with vehicles staying for days at a time, well past the hours during the day. Overnight takes up these spots without enforcement. There's no initiative for people to not keep committing these offenses. There being no enforcement, people park overnight, stay for weeks at a time," he said. "That creates a problem for restaurants, residents, marina, everything."
City Manager Richard Chess said expanding enforcement has been discussed before but faced budget limitations. He noted that the current plan includes only a single part-time officer, which may not provide consistent coverage.
"If we can't get to full time positions, I considered having two part time positions because if we have one part time position, 30 hours and the person calls in sick, we don't have enforcement for the entire day. So we don't get to full time positions at a minimum. We need two part time positions, so if someone does call in sick, we'll have enforcement downtown for that day," Chess said.
Officials also revisited the idea of paid parking as a potential funding source. The parking committee recently decided not to move forward with paid parking at the beach after reviewing costs and projected revenue.
"We decided unanimously to abandon the award to bid with PCI for paid beach parking. Through our discussions, it's become clear that the cost for the kiosk that the city would be responsible for with vandalism or damage or anything like that, as well as the share that would go to the parking company. We feel that it wouldn't be worth it at this point. There wouldn't be enough revenue coming through," Collins said.
However, city leaders emphasized that paid parking could still play a role in the future, particularly in supporting enforcement and infrastructure.
"I know it's an uncomfortable discussion about paid parking downtown as well as the beach side, but as we consider enforcement and putting on staff, those revenue streams can be very welcoming in terms of supporting enforcement downtown. So I think we did the right thing by abandoning the agreement with PCI, because it wasn't structured properly, but we should not abandon the idea of paid parking," Chess said.
Mayor Linda Hudson said the city may ultimately need to make difficult decisions as it balances growth, access and funding.
"We have to make hard decisions. And if one of them is paid parking, if this new garage is a paid parking garage or whatever we have to do, we're going to have to do to make it work for the downtown businesses and our waterfront and our marina, and our festivals. We have a lot of considerations," Hudson said. "I think all options are on the table."
City staff have been directed to further evaluate options for a parking garage, enforcement measures and the potential role of paid parking as officials work toward a long-term solution.