Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/115375
Sarasota News Leader March 15, 2013 "It used to be an exception where we would get a little overflow parking, like on the Fourth of July or Siesta Fiesta," Merkle said, "but now it's basically the rule. The traffic and parking have increased significantly over the years, and there's hardly a season." Page 45 cupying rental units. Street-side parking is not allowed on the east side of Ocean along other roads, he said. When TAC member Sgt. Darrell Seckendorf of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office asked her when she had taken the photos she had She added, "In fact, there really isn't a season submitted, Merkle replied she had shot them at different times of the year, some during seaon the key anymore." son and some out of season. While she has sympathy for the businesses that need customer parking, Merkle contin- "Was there an event going on?" Seckendorf ued, and she understands the importance of asked. tourism to the county's economy, she does not "No," she responded. "It was just a weekend." understand why a residential street "should subsidize parking for businesses." Pointing out that she works in Venice, she said she often sees cars parked not on the right of Merkle pointed out, "We have very lofty propway but on the road when she returns home erty taxes out there [on Siesta Key], and we in the evenings. don't derive income from their businesses any more than they pay our property taxes." "I can't imagine a firetruck or an ambulance trying to get by there," she added. The curbing on the south side of Avenida de Mayo runs from the Canal Road intersection When Swartz asked how far the curbing conto Avenida de Cortez, she added. "I myself tinued from the Canal Road intersection, wouldn't mind if [the county] would just pro- Merkle said she thought the distance was hibit parking in that area, because people ar- about 40 feet. en't parking off the street; people are parking When he then asked whether it continued beon the street." yond the entrance to the municipal parking lot She encouraged the TAC members to look at between Avenida de Mayo and Avenida Madthe photos she had provided them. ura, she told him it does. Merkle also pointed out that other side streets directly off Ocean Boulevard do not allow street parking or provide for parking by permit only, "and I just don't know how we got left out of that loop …" Swartz also asked her whether it is true a grass right of way exists along the curbing. "Yes," she said, but people are not parking on the grass; they are parking next to the curb. "Some of the grass areas have huge boulders there that residents have put on the right of In response to a question, Montague said parkway," Merkle noted. ing on the west side of Ocean Boulevard — in the Mira Mar Parking District — is by permit When Swartz asked about the boulders, she only, and those permits go only to people oc- told him they had been in place for years, "so