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Offsite Commercial Parking Eyed in Oldsmar

Mark Schantz/SUNCOAST NEWS

Oldsmar wants to encourage restaurants to provide off-site parking as a way to prevent diners from parking on right of ways, in places such as St. Petersburg Drive.

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: October 27, 2007

OLDSMAR, Fla. - OLDSMAR, Fla. - Permitting off-site parking in commercial districts could alleviate issues arising from a business being so successful that cars overflow onto city street rights of way.

City Council members will decide whether to permit off-site parking in certain commercial districts, as a conditional use, on Tuesday, Nov. 20.

The Planning Board will make its recommendation to council at a Nov. 14 hearing.

Marie Dauphinais, planning and redevelopment director, said the city needs off-site parking, citing as an example of the problem Jack Willie's Original Tiki Bar & Grill, on St. Petersburg Drive.

The vehicles of patrons who can't find a spot in the restaurant's existing parking lot crowd St. Petersburg Drive, especially on weekends, Dauphinais said.

Jack Willie's has the number of on-site parking spaces city regulations mandate, based on its size, according to Dauphinais. It has, however, become a victim of its own popularity, she said.

City staff decided not to prohibit parking on St. Petersburg Drive because Jack Willie's patrons might park along nearby side streets, causing even more problems, Dauphinais said.

The city has been working with the owner of Jack Willie's and concluded it is not possible to expand the on-site parking, Dauphinais said. So, the owner has purchased two parcels for possible off-site parking, she said.

Dauphinais is recommending the city amend its land development code to permit off-site parking in the vicinity of the restaurant, with specific standards to control its use.

A similar conditional use, allowing off-site parking, was successfully implemented near the Town Center residential-retail-restaurant district, Dauphinais said.

Under the proposed ordinance to be considered by City Council, off-site parking would have to be within 650 feet of the business and on the same side of the street. A safe route, such as 8-foot-wide sidewalks, would have to link the off-site parking area with the main site.

Buffering will have to be provided between the off-site location and residential areas. At least 30 percent of a restaurant's required parking spaces on the off-site parcel have to be dedicated to motorists looking for a place to park, not valet parking.

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