Response to Russ Colombo Letter to the Editor

Let me be clear about my position on the since defeated proposal, Possibility of Allowing Parking Facilities to the Public in Multi-Family Residential Districts and Churches Along the Beach Corridor brought to the City Council during the 9/13/23 meeting. 

The initial request for the proposal was made by a resident, not the City Council. I voted in favor of asking staff to draw up a formal proposal in response to this request. I thought it was an innovative way to address the issue of additional beach parking.

I knew that any formal proposal would have to be presented to the City Council twice, giving residents ample opportunities to hear and read about the details. I had not made up my mind about the issue at that point, I just wanted to see a formal proposal and listen to residents' feedback.

The staff proposal that was brought to the City Council created an Overlay District that was limited to the beach corridor along Collier Blvd. The zoning in the proposal was limited to Residential Multi-Family Use (RMF-16), Planned Unit Development (PUD), Residential Tourist (RT) and Commercial (C1, C3). There were two small carve-outs (less than 1 sq block) in the Residential Single Family (RSF4) zone for the Catholic Church on San Marco Rd. and the Jewish Synagogue on Winterberry Rd. 

The proposal changed the zoning in these areas to “allow” (not mandate) paid parking. At the time I supported the idea because it would not be a mandate, just an allowable use. I viewed the allowable use as a potential solution to help manage the shortage of parking along the beach corridor. Following the release of the proposal, many residents expressed their concerns about unforeseen consequences that I had not anticipated. 

Some of those consequences were:

• The few condos that would participate would create a false impression among visitors that they could park in any condo lot. 

• The condos that did not participate would have to increase their security measures by installing chains, gates, or even guards to keep unwanted visitors out. 

• The addition of non-resident parking would increase insurance rates. 

• All condos (adopters and non-adopters) would face non-residents trying to access the beach through their properties.

• Non-resident use would lead to security and hygiene issues as these non-residents would try to access bathrooms, showers, and beach access paths and boardwalks. 

These, and many other unintended consequences caused me to change my mind about the proposal and vote to kill it at the last City Council Meeting (vote 7-0 to kill the proposal). 

Democracy is messy. On Marco Island, we have a process for working through proposals like this. Rather than short-circuit the process I prefer to let things air out in the sunshine of public meetings. By following the process, residents and City Councilors have the opportunity to communicate with each other in a civil and open forum.