WINTER PARK, Fla. — For business owners along Park Avenue in Winter Park, the next few weeks will be the most important of the year Holiday shoppers will be ready to spend, but only if they can find some place to park.
"It's not easy. You park a far distance away and that's not good," said one shopper.
In June the city commissioned a parking study that found Winter Park needs more than 200 additional parking places on weekdays and nearly 300 on weekends. The Winter Park Chamber of Commerce said business owners need those spots, and wants the city to find them.
"Every day, every single day, they're about to come with torches and say what can we do about parking?" said Patrick Chapin of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce.
To find more spots, the city officials have committed to demolishing the Public Works building along New York Avenue and converting the space into about 75 new parking places. They're also restriping portions of New York Avenue at Morse Boulevard to squeeze in five more spots.
The mayor of Winter Park has suggested that a greenspace called West Meadow, just off Park Avenue and near downtown's Central Park, could be turned into a parking lot. Some commissioners don't like that idea
"I don't want to take away green space and increase density at the same time. In fact, what we need to be doing is cherishing every inch of green space we can get our hands on," said Winter Park Commissioner Carolyn Cooper.
That idea was voted down, leaving the city, like so many shoppers, still in search of parking.
The city is also asking business owners to consider allowing the public to park in their private parking lots during the holidays to ease congestion.
WFTV
