Sanford parking woes: What the city plans to do with its parking problem

SANFORD, Fla. — As the city of Sanford continues to grow and develop, some business and city leaders are worried about the future of parking.

Several options are currently on the table, including paying to park in lots or garages; however, both city leaders and merchants are against paying to park on the street.

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“What the city of Sanford is realizing is with new growth occurring downtown especially after three city blocks are converted to developed usage, that we are going to have a parking shortage,” said Sanford Economic Development Director Tom Tomerlin.

Tomerlin said that the parking shortage is still a few years off, but they want to get ahead of it by looking at where they can install additional parking and maintain better parking management.

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“The other thing to think about is a parking garage, paid parking is an option,” Tomerlin said.

Channel 9 spoke to some people and business owners who were not in favor of paying to park.

“I don’t agree with that because everybody comes down here and this is a family-oriented place, so I don’t agree with the paying to park,” said Sanford resident Rosa Nater.

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“I think what we have been discussing in these preliminary stages, the trend is to get structures that are paid but leave street and surface lots open and the merchants can help fund bigger projects along with the city,” said Christina Hollerback, COO of Hollerbach’s Willow Tree.

One of those projects talked about is a Parking Benefit District to build a parking garage, but who would pay for it and would visitors have to pay to park are all still being discussed at this point.

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