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New valet parking proposals on Fifth Avenue could get the boot
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Naples City Council may have the answer to burning calories after dinner on Fifth Avenue South.
Park your own car.
Council is set to discuss a six month moratorium on approving new valet parking requests in downtown Naples during today’s meeting. If council members decide to go that route, council — and boards like the city’s Fifth Avenue South Action Committee — would not approve any new requests for valet parking until a citywide policy is created.
Councilman Bill Willkomm, who chairs the Fifth Avenue South committee, raised the issue of valet parking during Monday’s workshop meeting. Willkomm said his committee controls what happens on Fifth Avenue South, while council approves valet parking in other areas.
Willkomm said he felt the city needed to come up with a citywide policy to regulate valet parking.
According to the city’s code, the Fifth Avenue South Action Committee can approve portable valet signs for Fifth Avenue restaurants, without the need for a building permit. Valet parking on Fifth Avenue South can not exceed 60 feet per restaurant in any parking lot and can not start before 6 p.m.
The committee has approved three valet parking requests for four restaurants — Sushi Thai Too, Bistro 821 and Chops City Grill and Pazzo! Italian Cafe — on Fifth Avenue this year, Willkomm said. Those permits expire in November.
That’s different from the regulations set up for Third Street South. According to the city code, the valet signs are also exempt from building permits, but must be approved by the city manager. There is not a set amount of hours the service can operate, and the signs can be placed in the right-of-way as long as they don’t interfere with traffic.
Naples City Manager Bill Moss said one company on Third Street South has been granted valet services this year. The service was approved without going before council, something Moss said will not happen again.
Valet parking isn’t the only parking issue on today’s agenda. Council will be asked to set the sale price for a parking space in the new parking garage at Sixth Avenue South and Eighth Street South.
Russ Adams, the city’s community redevelopment director, is asking that council set the price at $28,900 per space. That money, Adams said in a memo to council, will purchase development rights, not specific parking places, and will give developers hoping to build in downtown Naples the number of parking spaces needed to move forward with their project.
Adams said in the memo that revenue from the sale of spaces could generate significant funds that could be used for future parking improvements or help pay down the bond for the new garage.
Moss also plans to once again discuss special events. Moss said Tuesday he needed clarification on how the city would handle new events, such as private parties and weddings.
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If you go
What: Naples City Council
When: 9 a.m. today
Where: City Hall, Eighth Street South
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No Mention of where the valet parking area is located. These clowns have made it a practice to use the closest most convenient spaces and force those who choose not to use their services to park great distances from their destination. It should be the valets who have to run the distance to park and retrieve cars they park. This can be seen at Venetian Village in front of Bayfront Restaurant where all the front row spaces have cones placed by the valet service to prevent anyone from parking in them. It would only sem logical that no one would willingly choose to give their vehicle keys to a valet to park their car 20 feet from the door of the restaurant. It should be the valets who park cars at the rear of this lot and not be allowed to inconvenience those who would rather park their own vehicle. Further, this is not fair to other merchants who could lost patrons because they are inconvenienced by having to park further away than usual. This will become a more important issue when the rainy season hits. Who wants to get soaked running across the parking lot just because some valet kids have taken all the choice spaces? If any of them think this will earn them a tip, they better think again.
#1 Posted by fjf on May 7, 2008 at 9:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Those clowns are part of Tony Marino's valet crew, otherwise known as, DBA; Marino Parking Systems. I am personally happy that the valet have those jobs. They make good money, and yes, when i worked for Marino, the parking situation was simple: use any parking spaces within a reasonable distance for valet.
We were also told to hoard spaces so that people would be forced to use (thus pay) for valet services. Marino Parking Systems was shady like that. Eventually i quit because the boss began charging his own valet for use of the tickets (5 bucks ticket sound fair? few would tip). If valet collected 400$ in cash for valet and gave out 80 tickets, Marino would get all 400 and the runners would get nothing.
#2 Posted by SHIFTT on May 7, 2008 at 2:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why sell the spaces for development rights, there are not enough spaces right now, so the new spaces will fill the void. By selling them to developers we will be right back where we started again.
I have an Idea why not sell spaces to future developments in a FUTURE parking garage. Naples continues to advertise to attract visitors and charge Tourist Taxes, yet even though they attempt to attract more people they do not make plans on where they are to put these peoples vehicles. Stuffing more people iinto the same space means overcrowding. In season it is next to impossible to find a parking area near the beach during the day, or a space downtown at night and we LIVE HERE.
#3 Posted by kneejerk on May 7, 2008 at 3:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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