A pay-to-park program that was expected to go into effect late last year at three popular parks is likely to not happen at all, according to officials’ comments at the end of a Fort Pierce City Commission meeting earlier this month.
The plan to charge for parking at Jetty Park on Seaway Drive, Jaycee Park on South Ocean Drive, and South Causeway Park on S A1A and South Bridge was not a welcome one for residents who are used to free parking at the locations, but it was deemed necessary to raise much-needed funds for maintenance in the area.
“The primary reason for getting involved with this to begin with was to offset the cost of the maintenance of the parks,” said Commissioner Michael Broderick, who is on the parking committee.
But Broderick explained to fellow commissioners that the contract was altered, and “it changed to the point that it wasn’t palatable,” he said. “I know this issue has been kind of sitting out there because we really haven’t done anything with it to wrap up the contract.”
The proposed fee schedule was set for $3 per hour, $15.00 per day during the week, and $20 per day on weekends. Initially, it was hoped that city residents could be exempt, but according to the county, all users had to pay the same amount or the county risked losing federal funding.
A total of 35 percent of the funds was to go to the vendor PCI Municipal Services, while Fort Pierce would get 65 percent, around $585,000, with the city responsible for damaged equipment at a rate of about $2,000 per unit. Funds were to be generated from annual parking passes as well.
But the vendor said its rate was actually 46 percent, not 35, thus lowering the city’s revenue.
The parking committee voted unanimously at their November meeting to discontinue the Pay to Park Contract, and City Manager Richard Chess recommended that the Ordinance, Resolution and the Contract be brought back to the City Commission for feedback.
Broderick explained that Shaun Coss from Code Enforcement had “done a deep dive” into the contract. “Based on Shaun’s input and the review that the parking committee did, I think this thing is dead on arrival,” Broderick said.
“If the City Commission thinks that we can revive it and try to renegotiate that’s fine too.”
The pay-to-park conversation spurred a discussion about other parking needs in the city, namely for a parking garage downtown.
“With everything going on in 2026 and all these plans, we’ve got five, 10-year plans, I’m again going to ask that we bring up for discussion parking,” said Commissioner Arnold Gaines.
“We don’t have to agree to it and we don’t have to say yes, but it’s time for us to have a discussion on some type of parking structure.”
With bonds coming due in a few years giving a possible funding mechanism and the fact that it takes a few years to draw up plans, get engineering work done and put a contract out to bid, the consensus among commissioners was to get started.
“It’s already 2026. That puts us at 2029. And we have the funding mechanism available shortly thereafter. So, the timing conceptually for the City Commission to wrestle with this idea and present it to the citizens and say, ‘what do you think,’ is now,” Broderick concluded.
“I agree, we need to tackle parking and stop talking about it,” Mayor Linda Hudson said.
“We’ll get it before you on the agenda,” said Chess, ending the conversation.