FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — In a 4-1 vote, Fernandina Beach City Commissioners voted to rescind its paid parking contract with a vendor as soon as possible during Wednesday night’s meeting.
The vote follows the citizen-led referendum on Tuesday’s ballot when 75% of Fernandina Beach voters opposed expanding the paid parking program outside of downtown.
“This thing got throttled, throttled at the ballot box,” said City Commissioner Darron Ayscue, who’s opposed the program from the beginning. “It’s clear — it’s time to get rid of it.”
The paid parking program took effect in February and charges $2 an hour in areas of downtown.
Community groups like the Paid Parking Pack have remained outspoken on the issue, arguing that the program hurts local businesses and discourages regulars from coming downtown.
“We have 51 retailers that were downtown, [but] some have moved away now because of paid parking,” said Mac Morriss, Paid Parking Pack chair. “Some are saying their business is flat when they’re up every year, and some are down 10%, 20%, and they’re never down. Paid parking has really hurt them.”
But after Tuesday’s vote, the pack is able to celebrate their win in this 18-month battle.
“Thank you to the voters. Thank you to the volunteers who have come out and helped us because there have been a lot of people working on this,” said Marian Phillips, a Paid Parking Pack member. “This community came together.”
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“I’m a business owner down here, and I can’t be more ecstatic that my customers can pull up in front of my business and not be charged three dollars and seven cents,” said Jeff Freese, another member of the pack.
But the Pack’s victory didn’t come without hesitation from several city commissioners and the city’s mayor, James Antun.
“You got what you wanted ok,” Antun said.
City Commissioner Tim Poynter was exceptionally outspoken about his frustration in getting rid of the program, despite being one of two commissioners who filed a motion to rescind the contract.
“We are walking away from 100 thousand dollars a month,” Poynter said. “Revenue that we need to fix our town.”
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Without the anticipated $1.5 million in paid parking revenue, the city will now need to come up with an alternative way to move forward with several large-scale projects.
“We created this boondock,” Ayescue said. “To go to the citizens now and go, ‘How are we going to pay for this? How are we going to do that?’ When we weren’t listening to them for months, I think it’s on the five of us to figure it out.”
Now that the rift between the city caused by the parking issue is coming to a close, members of the Paid Parking Pack say now they can focus on coming back together as a community.
“There’s been a lot said on social media, and there’s been a lot of hurt feelings,” said Kim Holwell, a member of the pack. “We need to heal.”
Right now, we do not have a confirmed timeline on when paid parking will end in Fernandina Beach, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated online and on air.
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