Park Avenue parking shrinks

Admitting to dwindling parking along Park Avenue, Winter Park city commissioners asked city staff to find a way to find 20 more spaces, and they gave some away in the process.

Valet parkers may have more reason to head to the corner of Park and New England avenues after the Commission voted 5-0 to allow One Way Valet, which operates a free valet parking service in the city, to have 10 more parking spaces. Those spaces would be freed up in the city’s municipal lot on the west side of Central Park. One Way Valet already uses 10 spaces in that lot.

Mary Demetri, co-owner of the Park Plaza Gardens Restaurant, which underwrites the valet service, said that they were asking for much fewer spaces than they’d originally agreed upon in 2005 and not received from the city.

“We were promised 50 parking spaces when I agreed to underwrite it, and we’ve been reduced down to 10,” she said. “In my mind it’s just asking for less than half of what we were promised in 2005.”

One Way Valet president Sam Papia said customers who valet park would be there for less time than those who don’t, among whom he counted store employees and owners.

“We're having turnover, so in essence we're gaining more people and more spots than somebody who would park in those spots,” Papia said, adding, “We’re able to park more cars there by double parking and stacking… so we’re able to park 30 cars in a 20-space parking area.”

But that would mean 10 fewer spaces for those who prefer to park their own car, or who don’t have the spare change for a customary tip for the valet drivers. Also part of the deal, which was suggested as being on a trial basis, is the city relinquishing parking on the north side of New England Avenue bordering the southern edge of Central Park for pickup and drop-off of cars for the service.

Mayor Ken Bradley said he worried that the city could set a precedent if it continued to increase the amount of parking spaces available to valet companies.

“My concern is that pretty soon New England is going to be all valet,” Bradley said. “We’re just going to have a valet row.”

Bradley also expressed concern that by having more valet parking on a street with no restaurants, all valet customers would have to cross the street, increasing pedestrian traffic at a busy intersection.

“We don't want to set up something that makes it very convenient to walk across the street there and get hit,” Bradley said. “I think jaywalking is just going to occur there all the time.”

The Commission voted unanimously to approve the valet parking, but struck down an amendment that would give it a defined 90-day trial period. The Commission also voted for staff to investigate how to add more spaces near Park Avenue.

“We have net lost parking spaces in the central corridor in the last five years,” Bradley said. “I would love for staff to come back with recommendations for where we could get 10-15 spots back. I think effectively the Commission has taken spots away from downtown, and I think that needs to be fixed.”