ST. PETERSBURG — For months, when parking problems have surfaced in public meetings, the reply from city transportation staffers has been consistent: We're going to study that.
A parking garage near Tropicana Field? How big should the parking garage at the new police headquarters be? What about the waterfront plan's suggestions for moving cars off the water's edge?
Cue the oft-repeated refrain: There's going to be a study taking all of that into account.
And now the long-awaited study is nearly ready to kick off. Earlier this month, the City Council approved $150,000 to have Kimley-Horn and Associates' Tampa office analyze the city's parking needs.
Starting in June, the consultants will look at supply, demand and access for parking from Fifth Avenue N to Fifth Avenue S and from Tampa Bay to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. The Edge District between First Avenues N and S, extending west to 16th Street, will also be included.
A series of public meetings will be held over the summer and a final report issued in the fall.
The overriding question occupying planners is whether the city needs another parking garage (or two) and, if so, where they should be built, said Evan Mory, the city's transportation and parking management director.
The last city garage was built in 2000 at what is now the Sundial. The city hasn't done a parking study since 2003.
"The study should tell us how much parking we have versus what the demand is. It should tell us what the shortages are," Mory said.
Council member Karl Nurse thinks one good spot for public parking would be at the new police headquarters. Current plans call for a garage big enough to shelter all of the department's vehicles during a hurricane. Absent a catastrophe, Nurse said, that leaves about 150 spaces empty.
"That to me is a waste of money," he said.
A partnership with a developer for retail or housing being built above a parking structure could be another option, Nurse said.
Barbara Voglewede, executive director of the Edge Business District Association, said the booming area will need more spaces than the police garage is likely to offer. Merchants are eager to see the final report. Meanwhile, the City Council agreed to lift restrictions on about 450 spaces in vacant lots normally used for Tampa Bay Rays parking, allowing them to be used by patrons of Mercado, Bodega and a dozen other new businesses that have popped up in the neighborhood over the past few years.
"We do want to make sure we allow for growth," she said.
Aside from parking spaces — which cost about $20,000 per space to build in a garage — the study will assess if the city should stick with two-hour parking limits downtown or switch to metered parking or some other solution. The city was sued over its two-hour policy last year and recently changed its ordinance to help strengthen its defense against future challenges.
The two problems are connected. Mory recently told the council that mediocre usage rates in city-owned garages are partly because of downtown workers abusing the two-hour parking limits. A lack of signs telling people where they can find public parking also contributes, he said.
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Explore all your optionsContact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8459. Follow @CharlieFrago.