In a stark reversal of its controversial new policy, the Sarasota City Commission voted unanimously to suspend its new extended parking hours during a marathon meeting on Monday.
The move came after intense pushback from residents, business owners and other stakeholders in Sarasota’s downtown and St. Armands Circle. Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch, who is running for reelection, pushed the board to add the parking issue to Monday’s agenda at its previous meeting.
The city will now revert to its former parking hours and hourly rates — with free parking on Sundays and paid parking ending at 8 p.m. during the week — while the increased charges for citations will stay in effect. The city will hold a parking workshop on Aug. 24 to gather more public input before they find a permanent solution.
Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich, who originally had voted for the increased parking hours and rates, said outright that the city board had erred.
“We had the best intentions and we thought extending the hours and keeping the rates low would be the solution,” Ohlrich said. “We didn’t talk to our stakeholders. We didn’t talk to the restaurateurs, the retailers, our residents, or our tourists. We talked to ourselves.”
Parking has been one of the defining issues in Sarasota’s long-running debate over the future of downtown. Restaurant owners and shopkeepers say rapid development, worsening congestion and increasingly restrictive parking policies are driving customers to destinations like the University Town Center, where parking is free.
People from all walks of downtown life had emailed the commission and spoken at public comment to oppose the new fees and hours, which extended Monday through Saturday hours to between 8 a.m. and midnight for on-street parking and 24 hours a day in city parking garages.
Parking on Sunday mornings before Monday’s reversal was free only because downtown faith leaders successfully persuaded the commission to carve out an exception.
Richard Russell, the general and artistic director of the Sarasota Opera, said new time-limits will incumber his patrons. Restaurant owners have complained they are seeing less customers and more empty downtown parking spaces.
The motion to reverse the parking policies came from Commissioner Kyle Battie, although he seemed skeptical of the claims by downtown business owners that they were losing customers.
“I’m the lone person up here who didn’t vote for the damn thing,” Battie said.
The city’s parking division is enterprise funded, which means it must be self-sustaining from parking fees. The city cannot pull money from other areas to subsidize parking.
Sarasota officials have said that more revenue was needed to pay for parking infrastructure.
A proposed financial plan from the parking division shows a $6.3 million projected revenue for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, according to documents obtained by Suncoast Searchlight. That funding would be nearly double what the division brought in just two years earlier.
This story was originally published by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom delivering investigative journalism to Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.
Christian Casale covers government and politics for the Suncoast Searchlight. Email him at christian@suncoastsearchlight.org.
