FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — Fernandina Beach city commissioners took no action Tuesday night when faced with a vote to stop the process of implementing paid parking so that the program could be decided in a special or regular election.
The proposal to force paid parking into a public vote came from the community. The city said more than 1,700 people signed a petition supporting the proposal, meaning that, by law, it had to consider putting a pause on its own efforts to start enforcing paid parking.
People packed the chambers of city hall, some even sat on the floor, to hear which way the city would vote. Even the viewing room upstairs didn’t have an empty chair as people, like Roger Morenc, watched the meeting from a monitor.
“Paid parking is against the character of the town,” Morenc, a business owner in downtown Fernandina Beach, said, “they may have the power to do this, but they don’t have the moral right to do this.”
Back in August, Fernandina Beach commissioners decided to move forward with using the West Palm Beach company “One Parking” to enforce paid parking in the city. The company’s plan, right now, is to implement a $3 hourly parking rate, but it hasn’t yet shared when it would be enforced.
Action News Jax has been covering the city’s efforts to implement paid parking for months. We’ve heard from city leaders that the basic purpose is to generate more money to help fund local development and repair projects.
But some people who spoke during the meeting believe more solutions should be explored before paid parking.
“Nobody’s going to want to pay to just go to their favorite coffee shop,” Leanne Sellers said, who works every day in a clothing store along Centre Street in downtown Fernandina Beach.
Since city commissioners didn’t make a vote, the city is set to continue moving along with its plan to begin enforcing paid parking through a private company. Voters will get a chance to make a decision on the issue, just likely not until the primary or general election in the fall of 2026.
When the time comes for voters to decide on the issue at the ballot box, they will make a decision on whether to prohibit the city from enforcing paid parking unless it gets 50% support, or more, from voters.
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