Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/90018
MORE GLOOM ON ST. ARMANDS City parking enforcement issues are drawing even greater ire of business owners and residents on St. Armands. Photo by Norman Schimmel PARKING ISSUE HAS THE 'SQUEAKY WHEEL' OF ST. ARMANDS BUSINESS OWNERS NEEDING A LOT OF GREASE FROM CITY HALL By Stan Zimmerman City Editor If the Sarasota City commissioners were sail- ors, they would be reefing like mad. A storm is brewing along St. Armands Key over parking, and it is about to blow hard through City Hall. We reported the first winds after the circle's Business Improvement District meeting on Oct. 9. By the Oct. 24 Parking Advisory Com- mittee meeting, the winds had grown to a squall. "It's an impossible situation," said Jim Morri- son with the Kingston Arms Condominiums on South Washington Drive. He was joined in his view by a cascade of busi- ness operators and property owners along the popular shopping circle. "We need to lighten up," said Dianna Corrigan, the director of the St. Armands Circle Associ- ation. "Time is of the essence or it will cripple St. Armands Circle, the jewel of Sarasota." The problem is a one-size-fits-all parking en- forcement policy adopted by the Sarasota City Commission March 5. In the dramatic after- math of indecision over paid street parking (aka "those damn meters"), the city commis- sioners decided to allow free on-street park- ing but coupled it with stringent enforcement.