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How Orlando says it can improve parking in Mills 50, College Park, Ivanhoe Village

ORLANDO, Fla. — Have you ever struggled to find parking in Mills 50, College Park or Ivanhoe Village? The city of Orlando is working to come up with a solution.

The city said its $110,000 parking study revealed there are enough parking spots in each of those areas, but they’re not all available to the public.

The city is hosting an open house to discuss parking on its three main streets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Mennello Museum of American Art.

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The city said it likely won't add new parking spots but instead will discuss other solutions like better signage to help people find parking, and how businesses could share their private lots.

In Mills 50, there are a total of 12,456 parking spaces. But 4,384, or 35 percent, are on private property just for a specific business.

The study suggests the city help businesses work out a way to share parking lots, possibly even adding private security as an incentive.

The city said suggesting lots like Kittinger's Business Machines could help with the parking demand during nights and busy weekends.

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Craig Reahl, with Kittinger's Business Machines, said he knows parking is an issue in Mills 50. Reahl says their lot was open to the public up until about two years ago when they had to put up towing signs.

“(We) had problems back here. They were huffing. We were finding cartridges in the lot back here, a lot of empty beer bottles and different liquor bottles,” Reahl said.

He said he hated to have to close the lot to the public, but that he would only reopen the lot to everyone if he’s protected.

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"If the city wanted to do that type of thing, they'd have to take over all the liability associated with it,” he said.

Reahl said he thinks the city should consider building a parking garage, but that's not one of the proposed recommendations.

Read the full parking study reports below:

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