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Clearwater wants parking garage, but where?

Nearly everyone says there should be more spaces near Clearwater Beach. But it seems few can agree on a location.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published June 26, 2005

CLEARWATER - Sure, promises from politicians can be cheap.

And talk about building a parking garage on Clearwater Beach is nothing new.

But here we are again, listening to lawmakers and daydreaming about a parking garage.

Will it be any different this time?

After all, this situation has been going on since 1994, if not before. The St. Petersburg Times has written dozens of stories reiterating the same issue:

Almost everyone wants a parking garage. Almost no one agrees where it should go.

And after talk and study and scrutiny and more talk, in the end, nothing happens.

Now City Council members are pondering a 600-car parking garage on north Clearwater Beach. The speeches and sales pitches are still crystallizing, but other things are already clear.

Beachgoers want a parking garage. They still don't know where it should go.

Anne Woolf swore off the beach years ago.

The 80-year-old used to live on the beach's north end, but she moved to Dunedin and now does her day-tripping elsewhere.

The problem, she says, is congestion. Getting over the Clearwater Memorial Causeway can take an hour on choice weekends, and that doesn't count the time spent trying to find a parking space.

"To find a place, you have to get there at 8 o'clock in the morning, if you're lucky," Woolf said. "There's just no point. It's not pleasant."

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of people just like Woolf.

But most days on Clearwater Beach, parking is, surprisingly, not an issue.

There are 1,483 public spaces on Clearwater Beach and 751 more spaces at nearby Sand Key Park. Travelers can park downtown and take a trolley to the beach.

Council member Hoyt Hamilton, whose family owns the beach's Palm Pavilion Inn, has said finding parking is simple 300 days out of the year.

The problem arises only on those other 65 days when thousands of people stream over Clearwater Harbor, bound for the white sand and ocean breeze.

But many fear the problem will only get worse. When the new bridge opens and as the beach is redeveloped, city officials expect even more people to head for Clearwater Beach.

A developer who is building a Hyatt on the beach will add 400 public parking spaces as part of his 250-room hotel. But at the same time, the city will remove 524 public spaces along S Gulfview Boulevard as part of Beach Walk, a $16.2-million makeover of the ordinary street.

Other developers plan to add public parking as part of their projects, but it's not nearly enough to satisfy today's peak demand nor the growth city officials anticipate.

"We have the task of finding more parking for folks," Mayor Frank Hibbard said. "That's a promise that was made."

City officials thought their parking troubles had been sorted out before.

In 1999, the then-City Commission voted 4-1 to spend $26-million to build two parking garages that would add 2,000 spaces to the beach, more than doubling the city's inventory.

One was to be built on north Clearwater Beach to service commercial traffic along Mandalay Avenue. The other would serve beachgoers, just feet from the shore, next to Pier 60 Park.

The 1,300-space beach garage would rise to different heights, two, three and then four stories from north to south. There would have been balconies from which to watch the sun set, and exterior walls would have a wave motif.

It would have addressed the city's needs. But it would have blocked the view - one powder keg of a political issue.

And as opposition grew louder, leaders backpedaled. The garage was never built.

Residents torpedoed a similar proposal for a garage farther south, near the former Adam's Mark Hotel.

"Over the past six years, we've had lots of conversations about parking and traffic concerns on the beach," City Manager Bill Horne said. "We are evolving to a point where we got to sort out what the council is really going to do about it."

Finding a site continues to dog the city.

The land it owns is on the waterfront, and any garage would block the view and possibly outrage residents.

The city cannot afford to buy land off the waterfront because it's too expensive. One property owner is reportedly asking $6-million for a half-acre lot.

And if the city tried to trade land, that would require a referendum, and residents would still lose their views, this time to condominiums.

It costs $10,000 or more per space to build a parking garage. A 500-space garage would cost $5-million to build, and a 600-space garage would cost $6-million.

The city will lose $1.3-million in parking revenue from the spaces it's losing from Beach Walk on S Gulfview. And it stands to lose the revenues from whatever surface lot becomes a parking garage.

Simply put, a parking garage is a money loser.

"I can't think of any scenario that makes this cash flow," Hibbard said.

Talk these days for a parking garage revolves around a 31/2-acre parking lot near the Clearwater Beach fire station, off Mandalay Avenue.

The 145-space Rockaway Street lot can be converted into a 600-space, three-story garage, Clearwater parking officials say. But like earlier failed ideas, the garage would cut off a 400-foot stretch of beachfront.

And it would be just blocks from a proposed parking garage to be built by a private developer, Louie Anastasopoulos.

He walked away this year from $1.4-million in city funds to help build his 300-car garage. But he has said he will press ahead with construction.

Clearwater officials said they won't wait for him as they consider their own plans. They admit, however, their talks are still preliminary.

Already, some are questioning the thinking.

"When I think of parking on the beach, I immediately think south beach, not north beach," beach resident Paul Koenig wrote to council members June 9. "It's a no-brainer, south beach is where the parking is needed.

"So why does City Council and staff keep backing away from the real issue?" Koenig wrote. "Over the years city officials have not had the courage to make a monetary commitment to this monumental need."

On the more tourist-centered south half of the beach, a local real estate agent is trying to amass land to partner with the city on a 500-car parking garage.

Steve Hasley said he has a contract to buy the Golden Villa Motel Apartment on Coronado Drive. Hasley hopes to consolidate that property with others, including a city-owned parcel on Devon Drive, to build a parking garage as part of a larger residential project.

City officials have said it's too early to determine whether Hasley's deal is feasible. He's asking the city to pay $4,000 a year in rent to lease 299 of the parking spaces. And he wants tax incentives.

"Everybody knows that the city needs parking," Hasley said. "This is an option."

There are plenty of options, city officials say.

It just has to be one everyone can swallow.

Aaron Sharockman can be reached at 727 445-4160 or asharockman@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 26, 2005, 00:33:18]