The Sarasota City Commission voted 5-0 on Tuesday, Aug. 11, to suspend the expanded downtown parking program that merchants say has driven away customers since it launched June 29.

The vote, taken at 6:14 p.m. after nine hours of testimony from downtown business owners, suspends enforcement of Ordinance 26-5590, which had extended paid parking from 8 a.m. to midnight, added Sunday enforcement and expanded policing of free two-hour spaces into evening hours. Commissioner Kyle Battie, the only member who voted against the original ordinance, made the motion. Commissioner Liz Alpert seconded it.

The suspension holds until the city completes a public town hall and a dedicated commission workshop and returns with what Battie called empirical data, Your Observer reported. The commission will then decide whether to affirm, modify or repeal the ordinance.

One piece survived: on a 3-2 vote, Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich's amendment retained the ordinance's higher fine schedule. City Manager Karie Friling argued that violators under the restored hours still deserve citations.

As we reported Aug. 6, the commission had already voted to temporarily roll back extended hours. Tuesday's action formally suspended the entire ordinance.

Merchants lined up with losses

James Reese, who has cut hair at Salon 41 on Main Street for more than 30 years, told commissioners he personally walked into 122 downtown businesses and gathered 124 merchant signatures on a petition demanding a return to the old hours. It was his third appearance before the commission on parking.

"I've lost half of my business," Reese said. "I used to be behind my chair for six days a week. I'm there three days a week."

Darci Jacob, who has run her women's clothing store in the 1400 block of Main Street for 11 years, reported business down 40 percent compared to the same period last year. Her employees went from working four to five days a week to one. She compared the summer to April and May 2020.

Toy Lab, a Main Street store open for 25 years, announced it will close at the end of August. Nicholas DiIelsi, manager of Café Amici, said the restaurant has been paying customers' parking out of its own pocket because it needs to survive.

Richard Russell, general and artistic director of the Sarasota Opera, testified that the free, non-metered spaces near the Opera House are limited to two hours and policed until midnight under the new rules. Because those spaces have no meters, patrons cannot purchase additional time, and a typical performance plus arrival, departure and a pre-show meal exceeds two hours. Mayor Debbie Trice later cited Russell by name when identifying that enforcement expansion as the ordinance's central blunder.

The numbers

Friling disclosed that in roughly three weeks of actual enforcement, the extended hours generated $62,078. Sunday collections brought in $23,064. Citations added approximately $20,270, for a total just over $105,000.

The Parking Division's budget has grown from $3.7 million in 2025 to a proposed $6.7 million, a 79 percent increase, without adding a single parking space. The proposed budget relies on increasing parking-ticket revenue roughly 71 percent, to $2.2 million, which would represent about 33 percent of the division's total budget. By comparison, cities like Tampa and Fort Myers derive about 8 percent of their parking budgets from tickets.

Parking Division General Manager Broxton Harvey, who designed the extended-hours program, resigned July 9, three days after the July 6 meeting where the backlash first erupted. He left the city by July 20 for a new position in the Atlanta area.

Commission members acknowledge failure

Ohlrich publicly acknowledged the commission failed to consult stakeholders before approving the program, saying commissioners talked only to themselves and got it wrong. She said they never consulted restaurateurs, retailers, residents or tourists.

Alpert admitted she was not personally in favor of the extended hours but voted for the ordinance because it seemed to be the direction the rest of the commission wanted to go.

What's next

A public open house is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 24, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at City Hall. A dedicated City Commission parking workshop follows Monday, Aug. 31. The commission will then decide whether to affirm, modify or repeal the ordinance.