City commission approves paid parking in Fernandina Beach

By Julia Roberts

After a debate that has encompassed the city, and despite the impassioned pleas of more than a dozen speakers, the Fernandina Beach City Commission passed a resolution to begin the process of implementing paid parking in a portion of the city’s downtown.

The commission voted 4-1, with Vice Mayor Darron Ayscue casting the dissenting vote.

“This is overwhelmingly unpopular with the citizens. It’s not even close,” Ayscue said. “Every argument you can possibly bring up here I am going to answer with, the people don’t want this.”

Revenue from charging people to park in the heart of the city’s historic downtown — from Ash Street to Alachua and Eighth to Front — is slated to be used to pay for some major capital projects: a seawall at the Amelia River waterfront ($20-25 million), the demolition of the building that houses Brett’s Waterway Cafe and reconnection of the docks at the Fernandina Harbor Marina ($5-7 million) and a revitalization of the downtown that will include replacing lighting, infrastructure and landscaping ($10-15 million). The measure would require payment to park in 1,800 spaces in the city, including 90 spaces in parking lots A and B, adjacent to the marina.

Commissioners say paid parking will produce revenue necessary to fund the three projects without raising taxes in order to pay for a multi-million dollar bond. City commissions have discussed going forward with a bond referendum that would allow voters to approve the city going into debt for the bond, but as of yet, that idea has not gained any traction.

Speaking before the discussion at the Aug. 19 city commission meeting, City Manager Sarah Campbell noted that consideration of the issue was one of the priorities given to city staff by the commission at its annual planning session.

In May, after a public workshop, the commission issued a Request For Proposals for companies that would implement a paid parking plan. Responses were received, and city staff narrowed those choices down to three companies, Elite Parking Services, One Parking and SP+ Parking. The item on the agenda of the Aug. 19 meeting was to award the contract to one of those companies; the commission voted to award the contract to One Parking.

Fifteen people spoke at the commission meeting, most of whom were vocal in opposition, some of whom are part of a group that is working to bring a petition forward that would require the city to put the matter on a referendum, allowing the voters of Fernandina Beach to approve, or disapprove, of paid parking downtown.

That movement has garnered a lot of support in the city, where some businesses have “No Paid Parking” placards on display. One business owner, Kim Aspinwell, said she believes paid parking will “change our downtown completely.”

Another speaker, Julie Ferreira, recounted an experience she had with paid parking in Jacksonville, where she could not navigate the app used to pay for parking near the courthouse and ended up paying a $45 fine. She and another speaker who live in the city expressed concerns that people would not park in paid spots but rather would park in neighborhoods outside the paid parking area, creating congestion and problems with cars parking on private property. Pushing parking out of downtown was also a concern of Rhonda Shaw, who owns a business on Eighth Street, out of the paid parking area. Ferreira also recounted a story of a person she said who was using an app to pay for parking in St. Augustine and had their credit card compromised and charged $500.

“I think there’s a lot of unknowns that we don’t understand,” Ferreira said. “I don’t think that’s the community that we want to be, to have people who go to the library for 12 minutes and getting a $45 ticket two weeks later. I think this needs a lot of thought.”

Unintended consequences were also on the mind of Pastor Dawn Mays of First Presbyterian Church on Sixth Street. She said some of her congregants have mobility issues that would prevent them from walking from unpaid parking to services and events at her church, including youth ministry and women’s group meetings.

“I … have asked you to do your due diligence and look at other options,” Mays said. “Intergovernmental agreements, public-private partnerships — there are always other options.”

There were some speakers who spoke in favor of paid parking. Michael Sharpe said more people support the initiative than the public is aware. He referred to a person who had spoken at the last city commission meeting who said people “were afraid” to support it publicly.

“When I left (that meeting), a lady standing outside said to me, ‘Thank you for speaking up for us,'” Sharpe said. “I spoke in favor of paid parking one time on Facebook, and was so viciously attacked that I wouldn’t do it again. I’ve had several people say similar things to me over the past few weeks. All the misinformation and fake news, like city businesses are going to lose millions of dollars and businesses are going to close is just made-up nonsense with no basis in fact.”

Commissioner Genece Minshew said the alternative to paid parking, raising taxes to fund city projects, would have a worse effect on businesses.

“I do not want to raise the taxes, unnecessarily, on our city taxpayers,” Minshew said. “The real problem with this are the non-homesteaded properties and commercial properties because they will take the brunt of any tax raises. We’ve already had commercial property owners downtown tell us that, if we raise their taxes, that’s fine with them because then they just push that tax increase down to their lease holders. At what point in time do we price these small businesses off Centre Street? That will happen. And who will replace them? Stores like the one on Second Street that sells $2,000 bags and is a franchise. So, if you’re a franchise and you sell $2,000 bags, you don’t have to sell a whole lot to make your rent. But, if you’re a small business owner on Centre Street, and you’re selling $20 bags, you have to sell a whole bunch to make your rent. When your rent goes up 10%, 15%, 20%, year after year, you will not have the city businesses downtown, I don’t want to see that happen. I am … concerned about the reality of increasing taxes to the point that people cannot afford the taxes downtown.”

Commissioner Joyce Tuten said she has heard concerns associated with paid parking, such as whether city residents will have to pay to park, what the hours of paid parking would be and how it will be implemented and enforced, but that those problems can be addressed. She said the growth in the county, as well as the increase in the number of visitors to Fernandina Beach, has brought with it an enormous increase in the requirement for services, and “for city taxpayers to continue to absorb these costs alone is not sustainable.”

“As much as this is fairly odious and a difficult discussion, I see no other path forward,” Tuten said.

Commissioner Tim Poynter owns several businesses in the downtown district, where paid parking would be implemented. He has been a champion of paid parking, and faced opposition at the meeting, and called himself “the whipping boy on this …” and said that, at this point, he cannot change any minds about paid parking, so he talked about issues that faced previous city commissions. He said during his previous tenure as a commissioner, a group called Forward Fernandina spearheaded efforts to fund improvements to the Fernandina Beach branch of the Nassau Public Library, which the public did not support, yet later proved successful. Another effort that was politically unpopular at the time, the city’s purchase of property for Conservation that became the Ron Sapp Egans Creek Greenway, resulted in a city feature that some call the jewel of Fernandina Beach.

“Ron Sapp worked his rear off for the greenway. Got thrown out of office for the effort,” Poynter said. “Twenty-five years later, we named it after him.” He said the city-owned airport, during his previous term as a commissioner, was in poor condition and was losing money. The city built a new facility and contracted a new Fixed Base Operator, and now the Fernandina Beach Airport is operating at a profit.

“Sometimes you have to make a decision that is not necessarily popular,” Poyner said. “We have kicked the can down the road, and I have been part of that kicking the can down the road. I’m proud of this commission who are going to say enough’s enough. This is not going to ruin our town. You can’t keep asking the same 8,000 people who live in this community to pay 100% of the expenses. I’m proud because this is not an easy decision, and I appreciate all the people who have spent this time and I hope we can all come together and figure out the best solution moving forward.”

Ayscue said he has looked at the issue from both sides, reaching out to supporters of paid parking, but his vote is based on the wishes of his constituents.

“It’s not even close; it’s an 80-20 issue,” Ayscue said. “Every argument that you can possibly bring up here, I am going to answer with, the people don’t want this. At some point in time, you are elected to do the will of the people. When they are telling you they don’t want this, you have to listen to them. I am going to stand with the overwhelming majority of the citizens that choose to not have this implemented.”

There is an ongoing effort, in the form of a petition, to have the question of whether to have paid parking put on the November 2026 ballot. Marian Phillips has been a major force in that movement, and said the petition had garnered “over 700 signed petitions by registered city voters;” 3,000 signatures are required by January to get it on the ballot. Phillips told the Nassau NewsLine No Paid Parking Fernandina wants to have the 3,000 signatures on the petition by the next city commission meeting, Sept. 2.  “We will get them,” Phillips said.

Ayscue expressed concerns about what would happen if paid parking is implemented and then the voters strike it down.

“What do we do when this goes away?” he asked. “Because, the citizens are going to have their vote at some point in time. They’re going to get this on the ballot. What are we going to do if we put this forward and it goes in? What do we do when we have tied $1 million, $2 million to a bond and it goes away? That’s what happens in Fernandina Beach. In Fernandina Beach, the political winds move very quickly. I fully expect that to happen. When those poles get ripped out of the ground… who’s holding that bag?”

As the contract with One Parking was approved, city staff will move forward negotiating that contract. Commissioners discussed how best to have public input into the parameters of paid parking, and all agreed the process needs to be transparent, whether in the form of an ad hoc committee or public workshops. Those plans will be finalized at future city commission meetings.

jroberts@nassaunewsline.net