FORT MYERS, Fla. — If you’re headed to Downtown Fort Myers this weekend, enjoy the free parking because it won’t be lasting much longer.
NBC2 learned that city leaders have a plan to start charging people to park, and that is catching some business owners off guard. Most say they don’t like the idea.
The city currently gives people two hours of free parking a day in what’s called a zip zone, but the city wants to eliminate the zip zones and give folks just 15 minutes of free parking.
Some businesses say while that may be enough time for DoorDash drivers to pick up an order, it’s not enough for their customers to shop or eat.
Chrisy Gonzalez enjoys spending time downtown but fears charging a parking fee after 15 minutes may hurt some business owners.
She said if the city eliminates free parking, she may come downtown less often.
“Maybe you won’t come down as much… it depends. Things are more expensive today, and you have to pay for shopping and food… it could deter some people,” Gonzalez said.
Michael Jones is the owner of the Martian Smoke Shop. He said 15 minutes may not even be long enough for his customers to drop in.
“If they feel like they’re limited on time… you know, it’s going to probably make people not basically come downtown as much now… which could hamper us from a financial standpoint,” Jones said.
Fort Myers Kevin Anderson said he doesn’t believe that charging people to park will scare off or chase people away from downtown.
Anderson said a recent study on parking shows it’s time to charge drivers after 5 p.m. and on Saturdays.
“We have goals of adding an additional parking garage downtown,” Anderson said.
He believes the added parking revenue could help pay for that.
“That is only going to close doors to people who are going to think twice about making Fort Myers a shopping destination,” said Cheryl Schaal, owner of Spirt of the Earth.
Plans call to install parking meter stations where you can get a ticket and place it on your dash.
Zip zones remain in place for now. A date for free parking to expire has not been set.