And if you don't have good eyes, come up towards the front a little bit because we do have these blown up maps for you.

We want you to see uh what's going on.

We want you to hear and understand, and we want your input.

So I'm calling this uh workshop, and just to be clear, to make sure you're in the right meeting.

This is a workshop, not a city council meeting, and this whole workshop is going to be about one issue and one issue only, and that'll be to talk about the uh traffic flow, speed limits, and parking in the downtown area.

So if you thought that this was on Nordic walking, you're in the wrong meeting.

Okay.

So with that in mind, um, can we have a roll call?

Councilmember Donch here.

Council Member Shaw, present.

Councilmember Early, present.

Mayor Love here.

City Manager O'Reilly.

City Clerk Carico is present.

Councilmember Webb has asked to be excused.

All right.

So if you find the map is distract distracting, just realize that in a few minutes I'm gonna be down there and I'm gonna be walking everybody through those maps, and I want for you to be able to see them so that when it gets to conversation discussion, you'll be clear on what we're talking about.

So the way this meeting's gonna happen tonight is I'm gonna say a couple words now, and then I'm gonna drop down there and I'm gonna be talking to my council, and I'm gonna be walking them through this uh presentation, and I'm gonna be addressing slide one, slide two, and slide three.

Following that, the council will then have a discussion, and then uh it will be open for public comment.

Public comment will follow the same format as always.

You have three minutes.

We're not talking about anything other than this what's in the room tonight.

We're not talking about other uh items tonight.

And we'll take in everything that we hear have hear you say and see if this is something that's gonna end up moving forward, getting revamped or being put in the toilet.

I mean, we just don't know that answer yet right now.

So um, yes, I've heard the rumors.

I've read the rumors.

I've gotten hate mail.

I've also gotten a lot of people saying they really like what I'm trying to do, but they might think of a way that it can be improved a little bit, okay?

And that's what we're here for.

So I wanted to answer the question why.

These are things that are reiterated over and over and over, okay.

And I've heard from businesses, residents, and visitors all that we need to address this issue.

Now there's never been a consensus on how to address it.

All right.

Um I even had uh uh somebody say that I should be shot for calling such a meeting, okay.

Now I'm sorry, but I think that that's my job is to be proactive and get people talking and raising issues, and that's what I'm trying to do.

Um of course, what we got from that meeting was a resounding no, we don't want time parking, we don't want paid parking, and we don't want a garage.

Um, as I go to meetings outside of the city of Gulfport, and I'm very fortunate I've been able to travel around the state and go to and see other cities and other meetings and and different organizations.

There is definitely no if, ands or buts.

The trend these days is to making our cities, our small cities much more pedestrian and bike friendly.

There's no doubt about that.

So those are things that kind of were all coming at me at once.

Okay.

Again, I sat out there for 12 years.

I heard many, many conversations about, well, let's do a traffic study, let's do this study, let's do that study, and I never saw one happen in all the years that I sat out on that side.

So another thing I just want to, I'm just giving you a quick overview, and then I'll go into talking about this specific thing.

The last parking improvements that I'm been aware of in the city of Golfport, I believe happened in 2015 and 2016.

So 2015 was when we paved and created what we now call as our beach parking lot.

For those of you that have been around longer, remember that was a gravel pit it rudd it, no uh defined spaces.

So we did that in 2015.

The following year, we went to the other side of the casino beside the excuse me.

My braces stick sometimes.

So I I there's nothing I can do.

We went to the other side of the casino and we took that very uh narrow road, we widened it, we put in angled parking.

It used to only be parallel parking.

So that one block of shore between beach and 54, when we did that, believe it or not, one block, we increased by 18 spots of parking.

18 spots in one block by going angled over parallel.

Just think about that.

That that's kind of a aha as far as I'm concerned.

So if I'm saying the last improvements we did in parking was in 15 and 16, then just take it one more step and realize that since that time, the tiki, the one that we've always called the tiki, that probably doubled their business.

That used to be a tiny little restaurant without too much customers.

We had owners come in there, work their butt off there, and do a fantastic job, made it into a music venue, and when it gets up and running again, I think it's gonna thrive again.

So back then we didn't have a second story on O'Maddi's.

If they're not open, they're gonna open any day, and I've been up there already, it's huge.

Okay, though the that traffic's not accounted for back in 15 and 16.

In 15 and 16, the courtyard was not hopping.

It's hopping every single morning, afternoon, and night.

That was not true back in that time.

Moon underwater, I don't know that restaurant, but I've heard everybody brag on it.

Apparently, they have a huge uh following in the uh St.

Petersburg area, and people are excited they're opening any day.

That's not a small restaurant, okay.

Um, we also have an another establishment opening called the Sober Bar, okay?

That's gonna be on the corner of 31st and um beach.

And then, though this isn't under construction yet, it has been approved.

We have the surf shack coming in, and that's gonna be a big restaurant also.

So when when we're talking about parking, I do feel like it's our job to be a step ahead, not two steps behind.

We have a lot of new things already happening and a lot more new coming along.

The things that I have realized that also should be taken into consideration for all of us that watch the news, okay.

I think we're one of the only cities in our area that has a water view that is not charging for parking or hasn't increased their charges for parking.

What do you think that's gonna do to Gulfport?

To me, it's gonna send a lot of people instead of going to John's Pass, they're gonna come to Gulfport because they can do it a lot cheaper.

If you haven't been riding up and down 34th Street, consider in the last I'm gonna say three years, how many thousands of new units have been added to 34th Street, okay?

Do you think those people living on 34th Street feel a nice cozy home atmosphere at night on that street?

No.

They're going to come to Gulfport, okay.

That's what's going to happen, whether we want it or not.

So, you know, is is my feeling you don't have to agree.

I'll never I never feel like anyone has to agree with me.

And I went down 34th Street today, and I can tell you, I bet there's another 3,000 units coming out of the ground right now that are going to affect us.

The other thing, if you've been keeping up with our plans for the senior center expansion, if you spend any time at the senior center, if you've listened to Rachel talk, our senior population is growing.

So when people are talking to me about parking, parking, parking, a lot of times it's not convenience parking, it's handicapped parking.

They can't walk.

And does that mean Gulfport doesn't want them in our businesses?

I don't think so.

So with that, if you'll allow me, I'm not gonna go down there.

I'm gonna put my back to you, and I'm gonna try to give about a 20-minute walk everybody through the slides and what they mean and be real clear on what my asks are.

Then I'll hear what the council has to say, and then we'll hear public comment.

All right, that's our game plan.

And this is Kendrick.

Kendrick is the person who helped me with all the slides.

Um we appreciate it.

If you saw the slides I did, I didn't do them then either.

But when the first set of slides, these are 100% new and improved, okay?

Thank you.

Good evening, council.

My name is Karen Love.

I live on 23rd Avenue South.

Thank you for asking.

I'm here tonight to present my ideas, and I have a couple of stated goals.

Reducing the speed in our downtown area, increasing our parking spots without adding in a garage on land we don't own, and preparing for future.

Okay, those are those are the three things that I really am looking to accomplish.

Um, I can't say enough times, I've said it many times already, and I'll say it again.

The disclaimer is I am not an engineer, I'm not an urban planner, I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not a public speaker, but I'm gonna do my best to present to you the ideas that I've been formulating for the last 10 years.

Okay, so I'm wearing two hats tonight.

One is both as an engaged citizen for many years, and the second is as a proactive mayor.

Okay.

I'm not asking anybody up here to accept my layman plan uh without any kind of improvements or changes, but rather that the plans be advanced with your with your improvements to professionals if we decide to advance it.

So uh just so you know, I'm gonna go through slide one and then half of slide two, and then I'm gonna stop and ask for questions, then I'll finish slide two and slide three.

Sound sound okay?

Yeah.

All right, let me get one more drink here.

So slide one, and it's right behind me for uh the audience that can see it maybe a little bit better, and of course, you all have it in front of you.

Couple of things that I want to point out that what slide one does.

The first thing is it lets you know that currently, with the exception of Essex, all of our roads are two-way roads, and when I say roads, I do mean streets and avenues, okay.

We also have in our downtown area two speed limits.

Beach and shore, which are shown in light yellow, those are currently 25 miles an hour.

The more coral orange type color on the rest of them, those um are all 30 miles an hour.

That is what our current speed limits are.

When you look at the boulder red line that's all to the west side of 56, that is all currently property that has signs that says resident parking only, nine to five.

Okay.

So you might say, why?

Why is the west side of town treated differently than the east side of town or the north side of town?

That happened apparently when the city decided to charge for parking in what we call the city part the beach parking lot.

I didn't get here till December of 10, so I don't know when that was.

I know I never paid for parking, but somewhere I think in 10 is when it happened.

I think it was short-lived, but at that time, what the city found out very quickly was that the beach goers said we're not willing to spend a dollar to park, so we're gonna park on these side streets.

And then the homeowners rebelled because they had everybody parked in front of them, and they didn't like that, so they were able to get no daytime parking from 9 to 5.

Um the entire time I've lived here, I don't think that's been enforced, but not everybody knows that there it's not enforced.

One time I heard one of our uh heard our police chief Vincent say that it's not enforced and you couldn't even get permits.

A couple years later, I heard it was enforced, and you should go get a permit.

So I don't know what what the actual answer was, but though that those signs were put up and that parking reserve parking was created for particular problem being beach parking, that has been gone for at least the last 16 years, but the signs are still up.

Okay.

Then the next thing I want to make mention of is that it's almost a year ago now that I took time and I rode through those red uh street areas, and I did a very unscific scientific study where I just checked to see how many parking places.

If you didn't block somebody's driveway and you didn't block their mailbox, which isn't illegal, but a courtesy, how many spots did I think have were um signed as if they were reserved parking only?

And my unscientific study says 253.

So you can only imagine what 253 spots seems like to me.

Um the second thing is that Councilmember Shaw, Councilmember Thanos, resident Wolfgang, and resident Karen approximately six months ago went to our businesses over a period of a couple of weeks, and we just talked to management and or owners to get an idea of how many employees do we have parking on our street every day.

And what we got was at that time we were told the estimates that we were given would say we'd range anywhere between 125 to 150 employees on our um parking downtown every day when they're working.

Now keep in mind that did not include moon underwater, that did not include Mademoiselle Perry, it wasn't open at the time, it did not include include the sober bar, Golf Perk, Tiki, Sir Shack, or um Hurricane Eddies because it was closed at the time.

So that's a whole lot of businesses that were not included in that 125 to 150 estimate.

All right.

So when it comes to slide number one, here's my my very clear and precise ask.

My ask is that this council would agree to reduce the speed limit on beach and shore from 25 miles an hour to 20 miles an hour, and that we would eliminate all the resident-only parking on the west side of beach as close to A SAP as possible.

Okay, let's bring two over here.

Okay.

So now I'm gonna start on slide two.

I'm gonna go halfway through it and then I'll stop for questions.

So I already stated that I'm not an engineer, but I don't think you have to be an engineer to acknowledge that many of our streets in downtown Gulfport are too narrow to have two-way traffic and parking on them.

Um, and that's so that's what I want to address.

So if you'll stick with me on this slide, if you will look, um, I want to talk about one-way streets, and they're shown on the on the slides in the map as a narrow red line with a directional on it.

Okay.

So I'm I'm going to address 54th Street first.

I would like for 54th Street starting at 28th and going all the way down to shore.

I would like for that to be one way, and I would like for that way to be southbound.

I would then like to take 56th Street, which currently has parking on one side and it's a two-lane road.

And if you've ever tried to go up it, you know you might have to back up halfway down a block, or you might have to uh pull into a parking place to let somebody else go by.

There's not enough room there to have two-lane traffic and parking.

So I would like to make 56 be one lane, well, excuse me, one way traffic, and that that way be northbound.

So that's only two streets there that I'm asking to change, and now I'll go to avenues.

On Avenues, just to be real clear, I am only talking about from 54th to 56th.

So I'm not starting at 58th and asking it to be one way, all right.

Only between 54th and 56th, I'm asking that it be one way.

So I am proposing that 29th and 31st be eastbound, and I am proposing that 30th, Delette, Essex be westbound, and then there's just one more little inkling that's a little bit different that didn't fit into those categories.

On Shore Boulevard, I'm asking Shore Boulevard from 54th to beach to be eastbound only.

That would only make sense if if we have one-way traffic coming down 54th all the way to shore, it would make sense and it would be easier on our uh fire trucks too, if we continue that one way until you get to beach.

Westbound only.

Westbound.

I said it backwards.

I'm sorry, no excuse.

Thank you for correcting me.

Westbound.

Okay.

I wrote it wrong too.

So before I continue, so at this point, I've I've asked you to consider one-way streets, and I've asked you to consider reducing speed limits.

And before I get into the parking part of this, do we have any questions from y'all?

I'm sorry, this is to the council.

We will be having public comment and you will have an opportunity to talk then.

Thank you.

Okay, so I don't know what speaking order is, but umber Donch.

No questions right now.

Okay.

I don't have questions yet.

Okay.

Can I was gonna ask the city manager, or maybe even Kendrick's would know better.

Is it a courtesy to be in front of the mailbox, or is it something that has to be what?

I was looking it up in the Municode.

Oh, okay.

Um can you can you park in front of a mailbox?

Is it a courtesy not to park in front of a mailbox, or is it not legal to park in front of a mailbox?

My understanding it's just a courtesy.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow.

Okay.

And the okay, uh the public will have a chance to talk when we get to public comment.

All right, so the reason that I said that was I had checked on it, but I don't know what the statute is.

And the truth be known, if you think about it, we have mailboxes all along beach right now that are parked in front of every single day.

Right.

Okay.

Okay, no, I wasn't.

I mean, I come from a place where it's a real courtesy that you would not do that.

So when I was going and doing a slow motion snail pace, trying to uh estimate my my car's length and stuff, I was trying to do it so that you wouldn't be in front of the mailbox.

They I wouldn't be in front of so if somebody was rude and they didn't care about that and they parked in front of your mailbox, we could have more than 253.

I mean, I mean, right, but uh thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Additionally, though, even if there is a state statute that says that you can or cannot, we have our own ordinances, so it's up to our ordinance what it is.

And our ordinance says that it's not illegal to park in front of the mailbox.

I have not found a reference to parking front of the mailbox yet.

Okay.

Great, thank you.

You good?

Then I can go on.

All right.

So now I get to the the what I think is the even more fun part is by taking and making these one way streets.

If if y'all agreed to that, we now can get into a lot more parking than what we have right now.

So if you stick with me, I have three major streets I'm going to talk about initially.

So the first, I would like for you to look at 54th.

Okay.

So on 54th, and if you've ever parked on 54th, you know it is total chaos.

You don't know on any given day if it's going to be parallel parking or angled parking.

Uh you have some homeowners who have pretty much tried to take the entire frontage of their road as their own parking, okay, even though that is a city easement.

So we do own that property.

So I think it uh what I'm suggesting is on 54th, between 28th and 31st, that's nice and wide.

I would like to think that if we had that one way, that we would then clearly identify people's driveways and protect their driveways, and then go to angled parking.

That would add a lot of spaces right there.

Do I know exactly how many?

No, I'm not in the business.

I'm trying to advance this to the professionals who could tell us that.

The last section of 54th from 31st to shore, that's narrower there.

So there I am not asking it to be um parking on both sides of the road.

I'm only asking for one.

And whereas in my last presentation, I kept calling it golf cart and handicap parking.

I'm now going to the term designated parking, let the professionals decide.

But ultimately, what my goal is is to try and get more handicapped parking and uh to use the space as efficiently as possible.

So if I could only get, I'm just gonna use, for example, if I could only get six cars there, but maybe I could get 10 golf carts.

I think that could be a good buy, okay.

But my real concern is increasing the handicap parking there.

That's the opportunity to get into Veterans Park, to get down to our waterfront, to use our pier as well as visit um our businesses there.

So because it's narrower, I'd like to think a part of it will be used for um motorcycles and golf carts, and a good bit of it would be used for handicap as well.

And you know, we always know that handicapped needs wider spaces, and then of course, motorcycles and golf carts routinely use narrow spaces, though I know there's exceptions to that rule as well.

Okay.

So then if you would go with me to 56, that's the one that I'm asking being uh northbound only.

Currently you have um two-way traffic there and um parking on one side only, I would like that to be as I already said one-way traffic.

And I would like the parking to be on one side of the street only, but I'd like it to be angled.

And remember, when we did that on beach, we got 18 more spots just in one block.

Okay, and then the next one has to do with 29th Avenue South, um, from beach to 54th.

That section of 29th is much wider than the rest of the section of 29th.

So right now on that's that one long block from beach to 54th, you currently have traffic going two ways and you have parking on both sides of the road.

I would like to see that be one way and make angled parking on both sides of the road.

I think we would greatly improve the number of uh spots along that area right now without changing anything very dramatically.

All right, so now we get a little bit where the first maps were a little bit confusing to people, and I heard some of the most bizarre rumors yet.

I've been in office a year, I've heard a lot, but these were really crazy.

So let me say that when we talk about beach, we're not talking about changing traffic flows at all.

We're not talking about making any changes whatsoever between 29th and 31st.

That would stay the same.

What I'm suggesting is, in an effort to get more handicapped parking and to use every single inch of space more efficiently, that in the north end, between 28th and 29th, and we look to the west side.

We have several issues there with driveways that cut in and also a bus stop right in there.

I would like to suggest that that entire block be used as efficiently as possible to create the most designated parking.

And that would end up being some kind of a combination between the wider spots for the handicapped spots and narrower spots and sometimes shorter spots for motorcycles and golf carts.

So if I'm talking about doing that on the north end, then I want to drop to the south end between 31st and beach.

And I'm going to flip to the east side.

And again, the reason I'm doing that is you have a break there in parking and some odd sized spots that aren't really being used, because that's where Essex enters the road, and also we have a driveway that enters the parking lot to pias at that spot.

So I'm asking there too that we do designated parking in that area, a combination that would be decided by the folks who are paid the big bucks to make these decisions.

Again, what I'm trying to do is to get more convenient parking for our aging population and to use the smaller spots that are left over for our golf carts and our motorcycles.

I know that in the I've only been here 16 years, but in the 16 years I've been here, I saw a real transition from the number of motorcycles that were downtown all the time to the number of golf carts that are downtown.

But that could flip back again.

I mean, we just don't know.

So my asks on on this page, then on this section here, has to do with I would like for us to take our extremely wide easements on 54th and use it for angled parking.

No, I'm not asking that we remove all the trees.

And angled parking whenever possible because that greatly increases the number of spots that can be used.

And now if we could go to three, and we're almost done, guys.

So on slide three, what we did is we started putting everything back together.

So you'll see that there is a bold green line on three, slide three that wasn't there before.

Those are all of the things that aren't affected at all.

It would stay the same way as it is now.

Okay, we're not changing the way it's been all these years.

So that's one thing.

The other thing that I've asked is that we add additional 15-minute spots.

You know, we know, you know, we know, excuse me.

A lot of people come into Golfport and they're there for three, four, five hours.

Okay.

But if all you want to do is to run in and get your kava drink or run in and get your cup of coffee or pick up your to-go order from one of our restaurants, or run in and get a get well card from one of our businesses, I think to have a couple of short-term spots is really important.

Uh we currently have two, one is up close to uh Ceres Pizza, and then we add it one uh down at the other end closer to Neptune's.

So that was my goals.

Is that you seriously?

I mean, I I know I'm sorry because two of you have already heard this.

Um, but um, and I didn't know that we wouldn't have our uh that council member webb wouldn't be able to be here, that you look at this seriously, that uh we have a discussion here in a few minutes that you look at waves that it could be improved upon uh before it be turned over.

Um I have two different plans.

If you all will agree that this is going to be advanced, whether you know uh it even looks anything like my original plan or if it's totally redone.

I just want to tell you the really good news from my point of view, okay.

Um since being mayor, I've been going to a lot of meetings, and there's a group called the American Planning Associates, and um one of our residents actually made me aware of a webinar.

So I sat in on the webinar, and oh wow, is it helpful?

Um, and I found out that there's a group called Florida Community Planning and Assist Team, and they are a group of urban planners and engineers who take on a project, one project every year.

Okay, and they have a deadline for their next smaller project of April 30th.

And I have the application, I have filled out the application, and they give you the correct professional for the tasks that you're trying to accomplish, okay.

Um so if we decide to move forward, the timeline is perfect for us, being that this is the end of March because it's due the end of April, and they're gonna make their decision in May to start their project in the fall.

So it's really works well with us.

So I would like to do that.

But if we don't end up getting that, then I would like to, you know, go back to our city manager and ask that we um hire some consultants to look this over, you know, once we've kind of decided what we like and what we don't like, and to move forward with it.

So that concludes my presentation.

I'm gonna come sit up there and be mayor now, and I'm gonna listen to y'all talk.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes, we're just even out of the way.

Thank you, Kendricks.

No, all the way out of the way.

Yeah, even if to the lobby's okay.

Out of the way so people can see.

Right, but it's a figure.

So I don't know how many of you took the time to watch the presentation, but it was given uh February 3rd.

It was then addressed in take two on Tuesday.

It was then addressed in a newsletter and a Facebook post.

So it's been out there as much as we can.

So when somebody is frustrated because they say, how come the first time we heard about it is the gabber?

I can't answer that question, you know.

I just can have the meetings and promote the meetings on a regular basis.

So that's the presentation.

So now I'd like to open this up for council discussion and questions, of course, is absolutely fine.

And um council member Dawn, you're first.

So um public comments is actually first on the agenda.

So are they gonna change it if you'd like?

Um I I would like for you y'all to ask your questions first and have your your conversation, and then we'll listen to the what the public has to say.

Okay.

So just just questions?

No, or questions and comments.

Oh, I'm sorry, maybe I misunderstood your question.

Public comment will be done like it normally is done with it.

I understand, but I mean, as far as the council, this is going to be just for questions and or comments.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so slide one, um reducing the speed limit.

I'm I want every street to be slower, so I'm all about that.

Um, I would even be not opposed to the 30 mile an hour speed limit being reduced.

I think if you're in a hurry around here, you're in the wrong spot.

So I'm good with I if it could be slower than 20 on beach and shore, I would like it to be even slower than that.

Um, but if that's what we have, that's what we have.

I'm totally good with eliminating resident-only parking.

I don't think that that serves any purpose currently.

Um when I get to angled parking, I struggle a little bit with angled parking on residential streets.

Um, I think it does really well in like a commercial corridor and somewhere that's in front of businesses where people are pulling in and out, but on a lot of residential streets, there's a lot of residents that are parking in front of their house, and it's not just for transient parking, it might be for residents and people that might be parked there for an extended amount of time.

And I think having it the way that the neighborhood feels, it feels more like a neighborhood when it's just the car parked in front of the house rather than four cars parked in front of one house.

So I get that the point is to get more parking, but um, I don't think in a residential space that's that's the best way to get it.

Um additionally the amount that we could get out of it, while I understand that it's not scientific and all of that, um, you know, keeping in mind the visibility triangles and you know staying at least 10 feet back from a stop sign.

There is no mention in our uh code in order about mailboxes, but stop signs, crosswalks, all of those things need to be considered in the amount that you're trying to get, and I think that changing it to angled and still allowing for all of that is gonna um make that kind of a not a possibility to get as much out of it as I think that it would be to make it valuable, losing the feeling of that community where you're just parallel parked in front of your own house, even if it's not your house, but you know, in front of a house.

Um then when I get to um designated parking, um, I'm curious like if those are going to be handicapped spaces that maybe then there's only handicap spaces just for reference because I'm picking out um locations that I can picture.

Like there's only handicap spaces in front of Ceres and Neptune and Stormrunners, and at the end by um Okay, so just so I can clarify, I was not reducing any of the other handicapped spots.

I was only adding, okay.

Um, but that they're specifically designated as that, like I think um like that whole area is designated as that, and I think that that um maybe wouldn't be as accessible then.

It would take away from some of the accessibility that they already have because I mean it's not it's not as close to the middle of the block.

So if you're at one end or the other, then it's not convenient to the middle.

And if you're you know in need of that accessible parking and you have to park all the way down at the other end, um I just think there might be a better way to find some spots for that.

Um page three.

Um looking at the 15-minute parking.

I love having some 15-minute spots because people have to come pick up their stuff to go.

But um, specifically on 29th, there's um there's a loading zone there, there's um some different ingress and egress from an alleyway there, and I feel like if people are running into park, sometimes they're not as considerate, they don't pull all the way into a spot, or they park there and then they're kind of half out, or they're waiting for somebody else, or something happens, and then they might be in the way of a delivery truck or somebody else, and then the whole street's blocked, and then everybody's losing their mind.

So I don't think that that might be the best uh place for a short-term parking lot, parking spot, and it being one way in that direction, I think makes it difficult to access that alley that's behind, and there's a whole lot of delivery, I think, into that alley for all of those businesses right there.

Um I think that having it be one way in those couple directions there would be difficult to finagle deliveries coming in and out, and um so that might be tough.

So that's what I got for now.

Thank you.

Good ideas.

Well said comments, all righty, council member Shaw.

Uh I'll start with the page one as well, slide one.

And as far as reducing the speed limit, I see that as very practical.

And uh I I would not have a problem with us reviewing what would be appropriate for for any of those those areas as far as 25 and 30 mile per hour areas.

So if we were going to have expert input, I think that that would be valuable to get from them.

As far as the one-way streets, date the day after the presentation, and then multiple times since then.

I I drove I drove the um the concept of the one ways, and then I also drove through all the alleys.

And I'm I'm a little concerned and hope that we can really dive into what homes have easy access into their alleys so they can park back there as well.

Um it looked like some perhaps didn't have that access.

Um I'm not saying that would be numerous, but obviously that's always a consideration.

Um and then, of course, you know, if the alleys would be ready for more traffic as well.

Um I I um oh I wanted to mention too before before I went too far and forgot about that.

And I'm glad you brought up the tree thing because before we get any further, I'd like to reiterate that, and that there was a resident that suggested we were going to be cutting down trees, and and I never heard any discussion about that.

And as far as I understand, here on council, I've heard us say that we're not in favor of removing trees, we're in favor of planting trees.

So I wanted to get that in early before I forgot.

So excuse me for digressing just a bit on that one.

Um so um the the one ways um you know I I realize that there some of this could be sort of a pilot situation where we try some of it out, and some of it might be fairly easy to reverse if it doesn't work well.

Um I can almost see where these ones between uh beach and 54th would work easily.

Um I'm not sure about the ones that extend from 54th to 56th, so I think that that would be a good thing to get input from the experts.

And before I proceed on input from experts, first and foremost, I always want to hear from what the residents have to say.

Um that is that is first and foremost to me regarding any topics, and certainly this because it will impact how we how we go through our our daily lives.

Um so um I think I think that's all I have for that at the moment.

Um the the 15 minute spots I think would be really great.

Um I I agree with Councilmember Daunch on the location of that one there.

I do think having some in that in that area meeting on on beach between 28th and 30th is is very good because we're we have intensive eateries there.

Um however, that is a very congested area there, as council member Donch pointed out as far as deliveries, and um, and we even have a no parking zone there, and it's always parked in anyway, so that definitely needs to be further defined as far as everyday parking because it's not just deliveries that are happening happening there.

We have like several signs going along there, and uh so um the it and it's a it's common knowledge and down oh go ahead and park there.

I don't, but I'm saying that it seems to be common knowledge.

Um so the the other the main thing things that I'm concerned about.

You did clarify that handicap parking would remain um where it already exists, so I was I was pleased to hear that.

Um the the angled parking though is probably where I have a little bit more heartburn.

Um first of all, where it talks about angled parking on 54th between uh 28th and 29th, that's such a narrow area, and it just could be that I can't visualize how how that would look there.

On 54th, are you talking about 29th?

56.

Oh, 56, right.

That is a very narrow area, and that's why I was saying uh one side only was my suggestion.

And remember, right now you have traffic going two ways plus parking.

Right.

Okay.

I I guess I just need to see what it looks like with an angled parked vehicle there because right now I'm even having trouble visualizing that because it is so tight there.

I I always am concerned about emergency services there as it is, so I believe any direction we go here is going to be an improvement.

I just want to make sure that we get the fullest benefit out of it.

Um the the other area that I get heartburn on is on 54th.

Um there's a number of homes there that it seems like their house is so close to the sidewalk, a matter of feet, and then the sidewalk, and then there would be parking there.

And um, and I'm hearing, and I would like reassurances and whomever finalizes some of these proposals, is that they would not put vehicle or parking uh angled parking in those areas.

I don't know what the professionals would say.

I mean, that's why I would turn it over to the professionals.

Um right now you have two lanes of traffic, all right, and you have parking on both sides of the road today.

So that's a lot uh, and you have gigantic on on some sides there, and again, that's what the professionals get involved with.

Some sides you've got so much easement there.

I mean, you could park uh easily a full car and a half um on there.

So how that would work, I I don't know.

That's what the engineers are for, right?

And and that that would be very important, and that that was very interesting to hear about that planning organization, and I'd like to hear more about that.

What professionals are involved in that sort of thing.

So I'm glad that you you um explored that.

Uh then the other thing was I think we already covered that because I wanted to make sure that the handicap parking was spread out in between as well, not just in those three locations.

So I think that's all I have for right now.

Okay, um council member Shaw, what street were you speaking of when you mentioned that you're like right up against the house?

Was that 54th?

54th.

Pardon, I'm 54th.

54th, okay.

So when I was on the board um for the chamber, we used to get a lot of complaints from our vendors because um there was if you if your back is to the street and people can park there and there was nothing, right?

And I think they may have done something about that, maybe put the curbs.

So I think it could work, my opinion.

I think it could work with as long as they have those curves, and it's just not a straight shot to the house or someone walking into their home.

We found that downtown.

So I'm I'm with you on that.

I understand that, and I hope that they have a way to do something about it.

Some that are very tight, yes.

Um, but I like the angled parking.

And I I just have a question for the city manager.

Can you it expand upon or expand upon the um eliminate resident-only parking?

What is the resident only parking today?

From 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

Okay.

Okay.

So we have probably all received emails um from our residents, but the addition of 200 plus spots should I think maybe take care of that.

I think right now, if it's tight, um hopefully we see that it's not if we add parking spots to the street that they live on.

I never considered the look of it.

Um I see what you mean, but the third goal was the future, and I think that we need to make sure that we're ready so that people don't come to Gulfport and go around and then leave Gulfport because they can't find a spot, right?

So I I like I think that we should be prepared, and I like that.

And the last thing it was meant, um couple uh things I have here were mentioned by my council member uh peers here.

Um but last week with the statistics and the deaths and the fatalities.

I am all for reduction and maybe even more than what you're recommending.

It's just too fast, especially when there's so many cars on that road.

So I think I think this is great.

Thank you.

Very good.

So without a doubt, I appreciate everybody's, and I wrote notes on what everybody said because I think there were a lot of good ideas, and I think that um I like that 54th has been brought up a couple times because 54th, in my opinion, would feel the most impact uh of that.

But you know, uh uh what if what if the engineers came back and said, well, here's the compromise on that one section where the houses are so close to the street, maybe we um do uh curbing along there, or maybe the that one section we continue with parallel parking, which is what is there now, and the rest of it can be angled.

I mean, there's compromise in there.

Uh so I kind of liked that we said that.

And and you know how it is when you go and take these to the consultants, they come back with you know, we did it this way because, but we could do it this way.

So there's always room for conversation and trying to figure that out.

And um, I think when you asked me who's this group is a professional organization uh and they have regular meetings, but this is um I don't necessarily know that everybody's retired, but I got the opinion that some of these could be uh retired folks who aren't quite ready to just go away yet, so they like to go in.

Their last the last um uh project they did was in uh Palatka, which I never knew where that was, except I had just been there, so I did know it's on your way to get up towards St.

Augustine, and they had done a project there, and that one was um they send you the people that you you most need.

So in Palatka, what their goal was really was economic development.

Okay, I don't think that's our problem in Gulfport.

I think it's the parking to continue to support our economic development, so it's kind of two different situations.

So with that in mind, we're gonna open this up, unless is anything else.

Anyone have okay?

We're gonna open this up to public comment, and I do see a lot of new faces that I don't know.

So just this is the way it always happens.

You come up, you give your name, you give your address, you have three minutes to speak to this issue.

Pro-con compromise, whatever you want to say, that's how it works, all right.

Oh, and we don't boo if you don't like what somebody said, you don't boo them, and if you love what they said, you don't clap.

Maybe I have a printed copy.

Can I just put it there so that people can reference it?

Absolutely.

So who's first?

Show of hands, don't be shy.

Yes.

Come on up.

I have a list, I'll try to read fast.

Okay.

Uh my name's Doug Porter.

Um I live at 3011 54th Street South.

And uh my list is I'll try to get it within time.

Okay.

Uh I think significantly more direct communication with residents is needed.

Direct, like visits one-to-one.

Uh 54th Street is a residential street with no businesses at all.

How does this benefit us?

Uh why angled parking on both sides of 54th when only one side of 56.

The city easement is only two feet difference on each of those streets.

Uh can this accommodate large delivery trucks and emergency vehicles that we have a lot of ones.

54th Street.

Uh mail delivery.

Between 31st Avenue and 29th Avenue, there are 11 mail stations, sometimes multiple boxes.

Uh on the east side and five on the west side.

How would postal delivery work for all these homes?

Garbage pickup.

Convenient location would have to be allocated for trash and yard waste.

Driveways.

Between 31st Avenue and 29th Avenue, there are 16 driveways on the east side, which includes on the property owner's side of the sidewalk, not any easement.

Uh, and two driveways and two alleys on the west side.

Uh most people park parallel on the west side.

Driveways and alleys require ample turning radius for both residents and service vehicles to enter and exit.

This reminds me we need to set back all intersections in the city for vehicles to see and turn safely.

Um what about residents who park in their front yards?

Uh would it be necessary to redo sidewalks, expand pavement, and install curbing?

Uh it seems that residents could lose a number of trees.

And particularly between 29th Avenue and 31st Avenue.

There are a number of trees that would clearly be in the way for uh any parking expansion.

Uh we think par property values would go down due to the loss of ambience on our quiet street.

Um who has final approval of this plan?

Would it be done exclusively by the council or would residents vote on this?

Uh it seems there would be no parking on Dilette, but I think uh in the maps it looks like there is parking on Dilette.

Um how would regulations be uh enforced on numerous occasions we've had people park in front of our driveway and an adjacent alley.

Sorry.

Are you almost there?

Almost there, yeah.

But they've never been ticketed, even after police were called.

So that's a problem.

How how are we going to enforce this?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Councilmember Shaw.

I mean, um I I said I'm looking at Thanks and saying Shaw, I apologize.

That's all right.

Um April Father, still on 27th.

Um the 15 minute on exit um air six, I don't quite get what that's for.

I would think that would be better off on beach somewhere, maybe on the other side of the street.

And and just so you know, currently, in ordinance in the resident only parking, it's only an ordinance for the north-south streets, east-west is not included, even though it's signed, because when I was trying to get rid of that parking, you know, I said, Well, it's not signed, we should take those down at least.

And the city refused to do that.

Um, and so just so you know, I I hope we take it all away because I don't think it belongs here anymore.

And for the 56th and um 54th, I can see the problems with parallel parking.

I mean uh angle parking, but I can also see you know the advantage of gaining more spaces.

But I think you want to make sure I because I don't remember if there's sidewalks all along there, because I think if you're going to have angle parking, you need to have people parking to a sidewalk, not just to grass.

So you might need to add some sidewalks there.

Those are my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

I saw Amy first.

And then Ingrid, you're next.

Amy Costa, 28th Avenue South.

Um, a couple things I like the majority of all of this.

I think as our city changes and grows, we have to plan accordingly before it gets too crazy.

So this is a good start.

I definitely agree with Mayor Love that you know, obviously, this is a rough draft of some ideas, and the engineers will go in with measurements and all the setbacks, and they'll know what's what.

So some of this may or may not, you know, work out.

Um, I grew up in Philly and it's chock full of one-way streets, so you know, I know sometimes it can be a pain pill, oh you gotta go all the way around, but you get used to it and you figure it out.

And it as a biker and someone who bikes a lot in our city, um, there'll be times where I'm coming down 29th and there's a car going in front of me, and there's a car coming at me, and then there's someone coming out of spot, and like your life is in peril often.

So I think for bikers, this could be really nice to just have some streets where everyone's going the same way.

It kind of helps visibility, um, keeps us a little safer, especially with the brick roads that are already a little wonky.

Not that I want them gone because we love them, but as a biker, they can be dangerous.

So um just having some through ways where you know you're going the only direction is great.

Um, the angled parking on 56.

I also like um council person shaw said is in my brain, it seems like the cars would be out too deep for the car, other cars just skim by um as much as I like the idea of expanding parking, that might be tight.

But again, engineers, otherwise, I think it's great.

I think we need to grow the red zone where the the per parking for residents only.

Um, I feel like a lot of those homes also have driveways, maybe, so I don't know if the residents are utilizing that only parking, and I think I do agree with the gentleman who said it'd be really nice to survey the uh the homeowners with like a survey to their address with some questions like how do you feel about this?

What would you know what would affect you and and really get feedback from the people who'll be directly impacted, not just those of us who are gonna drive down and benefit from the parking.

So otherwise that's great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ingrid.

You're next.

Ingrid Bredenberg, 56th Street South and 27th Avenue.

So I'm just outside of this project.

But I know the dilemma that you're laying out here with the parking with the speed, um, because we are right there on that intersection.

People are gonna be telling you all their opinions about different things, and I just want to tell you what I really liked about this process, the fact that it was a process, and what I like about what's bringing your bringing forward.

So, first of all, I just really love the clarity of laying this out.

I know this is their third or fourth time presenting this, but I think this is how you're doing this is really important to get the data, get give the history, give the why, the context, the situation, so that we're all on the same page together because a lot of people are gonna be looking at this through the lens of this is my front yard, and that's very different from those of us that work, live, bike, play, whatever, and we have all have different perspectives.

And that's very different from those of us that work, live, bike, play, whatever.

And we have all have different perspectives.

But I think this addresses some really key issues, and I love that you've laid out the problems, and you're coming forward with some research possible solutions that we can react to, look at, improve, question whatever it is that's going to make this a better solution, and then provide the criteria to the people that know what they're doing and far as far as the engineers and the planners, and how exciting if this could be a project that they take on, because that would give something that we could all look at, and like you inferred that perhaps people will they will come with solutions we hadn't even thought of, or they'll be able to make the road work to do the angled um the angled parking.

I love the idea, language is important, and the whole idea of designated rather than pigeonholing it into one or the other, I think is very helpful, and it gives freedom because it may be it needs to be a loading zone, or maybe needs to be uh a motorcycle section.

You know, it's like make it make the form match the function and the need.

Um and the future.

Gulf Port's changing, our demographics are changing, our needs are changing.

We all drive cars, but the future may be on scooters.

And so, how do we do that?

You know, how do we make this city so agile that we can respond to the changing demographics?

And I think that's what everybody's doing here.

So thank you.

And you're modeling that, and that's how we can bring other projects forward.

So um, thanks for that.

And I have 14 seconds, so I'll just leave it at um good job, and I can't wait to see what happens, what your combined thinking brings forward to us, and I know you'll you'll get our voices into the mix, so thank you.

Very good.

Yes, I'm I don't know your name.

I'm so sorry.

It's my first council meeting.

Okay.

My name is Mickey Holzel.

I live on 54th Street, uh just south of 29th.

I've been here since 1975, and I own two homes.

I live in one and I have a long-term rental in the other.

My concern, we've already talked about parking.

My concern is when I leave my house to go east, I have to go across Beach Boulevard.

When it's really busy, and I'm almost 70, and I really think I'm a good driver, but that doesn't mean I am.

I'm concerned that we're gonna have a police officer directing traffic so we can get out.

Um St.

Paddy's Day, it's impossible to get across 54th or Beach Boulevard.

Um, so I I would think that's gonna be something to consider because now we have everybody leaving 54th.

If you want to go east, you have to go across beach.

Or if I want to go west, I have to go, and I only live a couple houses from 29th.

So if I want to go west, I have to go all the way down to is it 30th or 31st that, or east rather.

If I want to go east, or is it 30th?

That's one way, or 31st.

I think it's 31st by Veterans Park.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I have to go all the way to Old Maddie's almost, where all the traffic is, just to get out of my neighborhood.

Yeah.

That's all I have to say.

That's just discouraging to me because I don't have access from the well, there's an alley.

I guess I can take down the fence and put a concrete driveway and try to angle it into my garage and take out the back one garage.

I was just gonna make a joke.

I was gonna say, even if we take the speed limit to five miles an hour, you're talking about two blocks.

I don't think it's not like a day trip.

No, no, I'm thinking about when it's busy, bumper to bumper cars.

Yeah, you know, it's you know, it gets busy, especially Fourth of July and all the other days.

Right.

That's all.

It's just not as convenient as just pulling out and going to work.

That's all I got.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Barbara.

Good evening, Barbara.

Bano, Coronaway in uh business on uh Beach Boulevard.

Um I've had my business down there for 16 years, so um I concur with what Mayor Love had to say about all the challenges that we've had and excited about some of the challenges we have in the future with the potential of businesses continuing to grow.

Um I do support the reduction in speed limit for pedestrian safety and and car safety.

Um regarding the 15-minute parking, I would like to recommend maybe we put some time limits on there, except for Surrey's, you know, I know he has late night pickups, um, but some of those businesses get high traffic volumes for dinner, and so for those spots to sit empty at seven, eight o'clock at night, you know, where we could park one more car.

And so for those spots to sit empty at seven, eight o'clock at night, you know, where we could park one more car.

I'd like you to consider that.

Um as a small business owner, I do have concerns while I understand the intent behind these changes.

I'm unsure how it'll ultimately impact my business.

I won't speak for others, but I can say that in today's climate, we are watching every dollar closely and we constantly evaluate how changes at every level, local, county, state, and nationally, could affect our bottom line.

And it brings significant fear as a business owner.

Um ultimately, you know, we I don't want to discourage people from coming down here up for obvious reasons, but you know, we love our town too.

So these changes ultimately, please um make sure that it doesn't discourage people from coming down here.

Um I strongly urge you to approve some kind of study or apply for this application, which would be great, that looks at traffic patterns, customer behavior, the economic impact to the businesses.

So if we do do that study, please ask them to consider what type of financial impact this would have to our small businesses.

Because, like I said, I'm not gonna speak for any of the small businesses here, but that's what my concern is.

If if it's gonna ultimately benefit it, that's great.

But I just don't want any other challenges that could restrict um or be financially devastating to a business.

So um that's that's what I would ask you to consider.

Thank you.

All righty, Byron.

I'm gonna try to talk fast.

You know, I like to talk.

I wanna say thank you.

You I I agree with pretty much everything you said.

Um this plan, I have to start with the biggest the biggest point.

You're taking all the parking in front of my place away from me and making it some kind of designated parking for golf carts.

You can't you you want to you're gonna put me out of business.

Plain and simple.

I have people that want to come in to my restaurant.

The biggest problem I'm facing right now is that all my parking is taken up all day, all night, every day in front of my place from people that want to sit there and and park there for six, seven hours.

There's people that are parking there all week.

There's people that park boats there and and trailers there.

It it just never ends.

It's it's constantly all the parking is taken up.

There needs to be a time limit on beach, whether that's two hours, three hours, four hours, five hours.

There has to be some time limit on beach.

I am an advocate for a parking garage between the library and the senior center, which is already parking, and raise it up so that you can get more parking that way.

And please do not take the parking away from in front of my business and put me out of business.

As far as the one-way streets go, uh, I think you've got too many on one side going one way and then too many on the other side.

You have them all going this way in one section and then all going the other way in the other section, maybe back and forth.

Or I I can kind of see because 29th gets really bad trying to get through there.

So I can see that section being one-way parking so that one-way traffic so that you can have parking there and people can get through on on that particular street.

I kind of agree with you because right now it I go through there a lot trying to get out to take deliveries and things, and it's it's a hassle.

It would be easier going east than west, but yeah.

Uh as far as that goes.

Um I think I think people would I don't think your biggest problem is finding parking for people with um with golf carts.

I think your problem is trying to find parking for the customers who want to come in from outside the area, and especially uh, you know, like the Tuesday market, my guys that work every day, the the construction workers, the the plumbers, the all these guys, they don't come on Tuesdays.

They come other days during the week, but they do not come on Tuesdays because you can't get a parking space and you they can't come to the restaurant at all.

And it's getting worse every day.

And when they open up across the street, the employees take up all the parking, it's gonna be worse.

Um moon over it's just gonna be more employees parking on beach.

We have to have a time limit for parking on beach, and that's gonna alleviate a lot of the problem.

Thank you very much.

Who's next?

Gail.

Hello.

Hello.

Gail Gilchrist, 31st Avenue South.

26 years here.

Okay.

A lot of people covered what I was gonna say, and I think you're doing some good stuff.

I think we could get rid of the red part if you just took the signs down tomorrow.

Um 56th, no way would angled parking ever work on 56, especially in the 3,000 block, because you can't even back out of a driveway when they're parallel parked across the street without panicking that you're gonna hit them and that's little cars, not gonna work.

Um my other issue is you just redid Veterans Park parking.

And if you drive through there, I could find 11 spots you could have added to that park.

And I don't think there was any discussion on adding anything there.

But if parking's such an issue in this town was why wasn't that addressed?

Is my question.

If you can find more parking in Veterans Park.

And then um Surf Shack was given parking.

Council gave away parking to let them build that thing there.

Did they do that to Omadis upstairs too?

Did they get a variance?

So why are we giving away variances when everybody thinks there's a parking issue?

I have a really hard time with that.

I'm just a citizen.

I know that there's businesses that are hurting because of parking around here, but we're not acting in our best interest when we give parking away ahead of time.

So and the bumper islands on shore need to go.

We've had deaths due to those bumpers.

There's parking places missing because of those.

I'm calling the island bumpers at in front of storm runners and omatties.

Get rid of them.

And between Veterans Park and that, you've already added some spots without a consultant.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes.

Good evening.

My name is Angie Felice.

I have a home on 54th Avenue and 30th Avenue as well, both of which are affected to this plan.

I came to Gulfport eight years ago.

I drove down Beach Boulevard on a bicycle, no idea what it was.

And I was so taken by the character, the charm, the personality that I knew immediately I was home.

And I know so many other people that say the same exact thing when they visit this town.

I'm home.

That is what Gulfport is.

It's a home.

It is supporting businesses, and we love the businesses.

My partner Terry and I support every business in this town.

We encourage people tonight with multiple homes.

I'm staying at the peninsula bed because I want to support them.

I have homes in this business in this town, but I want to support them.

Thank you, Council Member Daunch, for your comments.

And then it's exactly right.

This is a residential neighborhood.

I'm on 54th.

If you angle in, someone's going to be on their phone leaving a restaurant, and their lights are going to be shining right into my home because that's where you're asking them to face.

Into my home.

And we do have an aging population.

Yes.

How many times does someone hit forward thinking they're in reverse?

That's my home.

That's not meant for angled parking.

It's meant for a residential parallel parking.

And that's what I'm suggesting that we continue to do, both on 54th and 56th.

If we remove the residential restrictions on the west side of town, 200 spots, do we need more?

80% of the time.

Our town is fine.

Our residents are fine.

We need this for 20%.

And we're going to change.

No business changes anything based on 20% of the time.

80% golf port is beautiful.

It is our home, and we support our businesses at all times.

The speed limits totally agree.

We need to be safe in our home.

Our business people need to be safe.

Our employees need to be safe, and our residents need to be safe.

So absolutely do that.

If you continue with these one-way streets everywhere, you're creating chaos.

You're not changing anything.

You're not helping parking or or the way people move.

You're creating chaos.

One-way street this way, one way street that way.

That's chaos.

We do not have that many issues that we need to change and boil the ocean with this.

One-way street 54th, 56th, no angled parking, open up the residential, lower the speed limits.

Why aren't we there?

And this is not the future.

Our demographic is aging.

On St.

Patty's Day, the future was Uber.

Everybody was coming in and out of our town in Ubers.

We saw it all day long.

So scooters, yes, but Ubers are also coming into town.

That's the future.

And I want my home to be safe.

I want to end with one thing.

And I don't know if you even know this is in Veterans Park.

Veterans Park, if you'll allow me to finish this thought.

Veterans Park, where we put so much faith and have all this in there.

I don't know if you realize that there's a plaque in there that reads, I pray that sometime soon someone will determine where progress ends and destruction begins.

That's in Veterans Park.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Kelly.

I see.

Good evening, everyone.

Wow.

I'll sit down.

Time flies when you're having fun.

So I appreciate everyone's comments.

I am in favor of reducing speed limits for sure.

And I concur with everything that Barbara Banno said this evening in terms of the impact it's going to have on businesses.

I do want more parking because obviously more parking means more people come and visit our businesses.

I own a home on 56.

I've lived there since 2011, right behind the peninsula inn.

When I'm going to park my car, I never go down 56th.

I go down one of the other roads and come up because I'm parking.

My mailbox is being hit more times than I can count.

It's a dangerous road when there is two-way traffic.

And I know that that is going to have a negative impact on 54th residents, and I'm eager to hear and learn more about it.

But as far as 56 is concerned, I welcome it being one way because it's safer for me.

I do not agree with angled parking on that street.

It definitely will not work.

It's not even really wide enough as it is at the moment.

So I do not agree with that.

Angled parking, if it gives us more parking spaces, I am in favor of it, but I really would like to consider the impact on the residents and the lady that just spoke brought up something I hadn't even thought of about headlots, because that that is a problem.

I own a golf cart.

Would I like to be able to park in a designated golf cart area?

Yes, I would, but I'm not sure that having specific designated golf cart spots helps with parking overall.

Because a golf cart can fit into smaller spaces that a car wouldn't be able to fit in.

It's about finding that on a regular road.

And I think that would be better for us if we could have a regular parking space instead of a golf cart parking space.

And that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thanks, Kelly.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes.

Here.

You're next after that.

She's she's next, and then you're next, okay?

I'm gonna take my ear hearing aid on so that when this buzzes, I don't hear it.

I'm Linda Porter, 311 54th Street.

Um, I want to say two words just before I make other comments.

Um, I do think the word survey and the word um committee.

I think you need more input from your business people, the residential people.

This was I was willing to say I read it in the gabber.

Nobody, and we're right, you know, behind Beach Boulevard.

Nobody was told anything about this.

I have talked to two of my council people, and I'm very happy um with all of you as far as how you're working on almost everything, but we should have had some input before this.

Um you said the only other option is a um parking garage.

Now I'm from the north where I know what garages are, but I don't know why you would ever put a parking garage here unless it protected you from the hurricane.

So um, I'm not sure why you're not considering a shuttle or something else to get the workers here.

Um, and then I want to talk about alleys behind beach and uh 54th.

Um there's lots of empty spaces with the parallel parking.

Even on St.

Patrick's Day, we all we had one car parked in front of our house.

Now it's true, maybe people were Ubering because they were drinking, but um, there was no problem even on St.

Patrick's Day.

Um, in general, we have never never we only have space for two cars in front of our lot, but we've never had a problem with people parking legally, legally in front of those.

And in fact, sometimes they'll say, Is it okay if I park here?

And we say, sure, it's public parking.

But as far as uh 54th and 56th is different.

Um we have parades coming down our street.

We've had wedding marching bands that stop in front of our house to wait for the Pows to finish at the park.

We have Veterans Park and we have the pier and we have Omattys.

And I think consequently, we get a lot more foot traffic, every kind of traffic coming down, and we love it.

And we like to sit out in front, but again, our little deck, which is little, touches the sidewalk.

So we understand that there's a right of way, but our right of way, um, our next door neighbor, they've got palm trees on that right away.

You're gonna have to cut down all those beautiful palms that make it feel like Southern Florida.

Um we have we bought it this way, but we have beautiful gardens there that you're gonna have to rip all the gardens out.

Um please form a committee and listen more.

I'm not trying to downplay the importance of the businesses, but for you to tell us that 3,000 people that live on 34th want to come here and park in front of our house is offensive to me as a resident.

And that doesn't say anything negative about the businesses here.

Thank you.

Yes, don't start it till I get to that.

I'm not doing anything, that's over there.

Um my name's Dean Pike.

I uh I'm from Maine, but but I've been coming here for 45 years and own a house on 54th Street.

Uh I'm just gonna talk about four issues, two personal and two about city services.

First of all, diagonal parking in front of my house uh would affect my ability to access my driveway, and secondly, it would also affect this is a boating community.

I thought uh it also I have a boat, and it's going to affect my ability to back a boat on to my property.

Um also if it's a one-way street, the way I would have to bring a boat and trailer back down 54th, I would have to go past the past my house, which would require uh cutting down at least one palm tree in order to get my boat into my driveway.

The two uh uh city services issues, um uh uh I'm I'm just I'm just wondering can police fire an ambulance uh drive against a one-way street, you know.

Can do they have to follow the traffic rules?

I don't know.

Um but that being that it may, and fourthly, uh if it is a one-way street, delivering mail on 54th is gonna look like the Keystone cops because you've got uh you you've got mailboxes on both sides of the road, so they're gonna have to ricochet back and forth.

Uh and finally, uh, how in the name of God are you gonna put diagonal places that that uh the public can follow uh unless you have lines?

Are are we gonna paint lines on the sand or are you gonna pave it so you can paint lines?

I just don't understand how you're gonna control that.

Uh you know how we are.

We're we're we're human, we're gonna park wherever the hell we want to.

And and uh uh uh unless unless you put parking stripes down, how are you gonna do it?

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Lenny.

Linda, you're next after that.

Lenny Gukenheimer uh Del Avenue South, and I'm also with Karen Schwartz, and she was not able to be here.

Well, thank you very much for bringing up this uh this topic, Mayor, and opening this discussion.

These are all just preliminary ideas right now, they're just in discussion.

And what as you mentioned before, what the final thing will look like, it could be totally different than or it could be nothing.

So a couple of things I'd like to uh talk about, who's talking people kind of talked on also.

I think it'd be really good to have a very good idea of exactly what parking needs are, and uh as uh the owner of a couple of the business owners talked about, I think it'd be a good idea to actually do an in-depth survey of the businesses and see what kind of parking needs they have, what are their employees and what are their customers?

We should understand where the customers are coming from.

Are they local?

Are they traveling from other places?

The mayor talked about it's attracting business from 34th Street, so uh are there other ways that people can travel here not need a car?

So there's buses, there could be shuttles.

How do we get people not having to travel by car to come to Golf Port?

We could have we have remote parking.

I know we have remote parking for festivals and some other events, but maybe we might have more ongoing remote parking where people can park away from downtown, get on a shuttle, and come uh patronize and go back.

Also, a lot of people now are using riding bicycles, and uh I know that you've already installed some bicycle parking, but more bike parking, uh, especially during festivals, bike corral where people can put out their everybody could put a bike in a space and be safe and secure.

Um even an idea maybe of a valet parking, especially during events.

Uh, there's a possibility that people could have a service where and uh combining that with remote parking where people could have a ballet parking.

Um so those are pretty much my ideas.

Anyhow, it it's it's wonderful that you're bringing this up.

Maybe we could have a committee form that could maybe explore some of these more.

Um you're bringing up the subject, like I said, it's been talked about for a long time, and people want it, and you're you're doing it.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Linda.

I'm Linda Craig.

I live at 2820 Beach Boulevard, and I also have a business at 2529 14 and a half Beach Boulevard, directly behind Stella's.

I am all for the reduction of the speed.

I am surprised.

I've been here for 21 years and had my business going on 21 years now in the courtyard, and I am surprised all the time that somebody hasn't gotten flattened on Beach Boulevard because it's people, I mean, I witness them every day fly down Beach Boulevard.

It's just it's insane.

And I always think where's all those police officers we have on staff when we need one.

Um I will just kind of ditto what Barbara Banno and Kelly had to say about businesses, and I realize the residents here, and I appreciate their concerns, and I appreciate that this is just a workshop.

You know, we kind of freak out when there's change that's announced, and nothing's even written in stone yet.

This not concrete, nothing's been done or said or whatever.

So that's why we do these things, and I appreciate you guys spending the time and the effort to do them for us.

My biggest thing as a long-term um business owner is like Byron said, is getting people to move, move your cars.

Jesus Christ.

We have one business in the courtyard that um its patrons will be there from the time they open, and they will be there till the time they close, and their cars will sit there during that whole said time.

We had a couple of instances over the years of my being here where there was a motorcycle parked out in front of the courtyard, and there was a car at one time parked out in front of the courtyard and down where I live as well.

And I walked to work, by the way, and um I had called the police about them being there for so long because they were there for over two or three months, and they said, Well, as long as they have legal tags and they run, there's nothing we can do about them.

So these they just sit there.

There's nothing to make them move, they just sit there.

Uh so that's something we might want to, you know, take a little interest in as well.

But um, I am granted one parking space behind my shop that my landlords have granted me that I've worked 20 years to get.

So I covered that parking space with my life or my clients, and the majority of my clients are over the age 50.

So um, and a lot of them are not that ambulatory.

So I just want to thank you for what you're doing here, and I hope we can find some solutions.

Thanks.

Very good.

Who's next?

Do I have yes?

Uh my name's Wayne Mariner, and I live at 2831 56.

I'm all in support of the one-way direction.

I think they're uh can't support the angled parking, like my neighbors say, it's just too narrow.

We're old narrow street and got solid curbs, so you can't bounce around.

But uh the only thing that I like the reduction in speed, I like if we could stop through trucks as the deliveries that come daily blast up, and I share a beautiful oak tree hanging over, and this spring I got a log this big that got ripped out of the tree from the trucks.

So if that is a possibility, that'd be fine.

Uh, the other thing that I'm thinking of if it's a one-way street, the whole mail delivery.

I don't know what the impact is with the post office because they're all supported on the wrong side of the street, and so that's a question.

But I do appreciate the effort.

I looking forward to the results.

Sure, thank you.

Anyone else before closed public comment?

Yes.

I live with them.

Well, you lucky girl.

I'm all for uh the moment we moved on our house on the 2800 block of 56.

We both said this street should be a one way.

Uh it's dangerous.

Uh I sit out on my front steps, and sometimes it's comical because the amount of arguments that someone's coming this way, someone's coming this way, and neither one will move.

You know, so there have been people that have gotten out of their cars and have arguments in the middle of the street with cars behind them now.

Um the other thing, you keep mentioning about um speed limits.

Speed limits mean nothing if there's no police coming around.

People fly down our street when and if they can, and we have a stop sign like every other block down to shore, and they do it at every block.

You can hear them, and they slam on their brakes.

I have never seen a police officer in our area with cars sticking into the intersections because they want to park.

I'm going back and forth, I know that.

Uh, but when there's an event, they will park on 56th uh facing 28th Avenue, but their car is stuck out in half of 29th Avenue.

And a cop can go by.

Yeah, they never get out of their car, they never give a ticket, they never give a warning.

I don't know what the police do in Gulf Park.

I I don't see that they've done anything.

So, as far as talking about speed limits, nothing's gonna happen unless the police department changes.

So you can say, you know, yes, we need lower speeding, lower uh speeds, but it's not gonna change if the police department's not gonna do anything, and they haven't yet.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else before I close?

All right, seeing none, public comment is now closed, and with that, um I know I have a couple comments that I'd like to make to summarize, but before I do, I'd like for the council members in speaking order to have that same opportunity.

Um I am super pumped that we are doing workshops on this before any resources have been used.

Before we've talked had anybody from the city or paid anybody to do anything, everybody's getting to talk about it, and I'm really excited that people can come and crush it or you know, be excited about it, or whatever they want to do before we've spent any time or effort or expense to uh actually build a plan.

Like this is something that is a conversation piece.

So I'm really pumped that we're doing that that way, and I hope that we continue to do that with many of our projects in the future.

And I think that seeing the amount of people that came here today was really huge, and seeing that all these people that were interested in this came and took an hour out of their day to come and tell us how important it was, I think is really awesome.

Um, just real fast from looking at the map while everybody was talking.

I was thinking um on beach, like at the beach, those spots are head in, not angled.

So I don't know if that would give any additional places putting those spots to be angled, like just the street ones, even not even the ones in the parking lot.

But since we know that angled parking gives more, maybe that would be an option.

Um but I think it's a great start, and I'm really pumped that we had a workshop about it before we did anything else.

Thank you.

Okay.

I too have always been a big proponent of workshops, so I appreciate that, and I really appreciate the way that it has been laid out to create a foundation for the conversation, and I very much appreciate the input from the residents.

Um I don't want to see the availability of input for residents to stop here though.

Uh, one of the residents spoke about surveys or whatever, and I am certainly in favor of that, always have been and would encourage us to consider doing that now.

Uh, whether however you wanted to look at doing that as a council, um, whether it be you know, going to talk to people individually, creating uh surveys of sorts, uh, I I think that would be an excellent way to go.

Um I'm glad we're talking about this.

Um, you know, I I know we still hear from people.

We we don't have a parking problem, we have a convenience problem, and this is pretty much how many of the conversations have ended over the years.

Uh I've lived here since 1994, and the conversation keeps coming up.

To me, that's an indicator that we need to be talking about it, and and especially looking into the future, now is the time to carry forth this conversation.

So I'm grateful that we are.

I have a whole list of things, and I'm adding a whole uh whole uh other list of things to my my conversation for a council meeting, and so thank you again for your input.

I agree.

This has been great.

Um thing I would recommend.

So I love the three goals, reduce speed, increase parking spots, and be ready for the future.

But I think that if we um go uh try and get a grant, or even when we engage, whoever we engage, that we have small businesses and to consider them is the fourth.

I know that you were, but I think that maybe we put that more in in writing when we do it.

And um the uh time limit, I I didn't realize that was such a problem that people would go and leave their car there for a long time, and I'm wondering, I'm just gonna challenge the city um to kind of figure that out.

I don't think that that's it may be overwhelmingly uh an issue, and taking care of that may take care of some of this, but part there all day and overnight, and it's just too much.

So that's not helping matters at all.

But otherwise, this has been great.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

So I loved tonight because though there was certainly some issues that half feel one way and half feel the other, there was also a lot of issues that were very consistent, so that we had a consensus on several things, and that helps.

I also really appreciate the people who didn't want to get down to the minutiae of what trees could be affected and what we'd do with them.

We're not close to that right now.

We're talking about do we want to attack this issue?

I was asked by one um business owner to have a meeting separate with businesses, and I declined.

And the reason I declined was very intentional.

I do not want to get into the the residents want this, the businesses want this.

We're one golf port, we support each other, and we need to talk out in the open so everybody hears the same conversations.

That's why I did it.

I know that made some people angry.

I understand, won't be the last time, but I wanted everybody to hear the same information.

Um so I think there were a lot of really good points brought up today.

I definitely feel like there was the most consensus was reducing speed limits.

Um 56 and I think 54th making them one way, but probably not angled parking.

I heard that.

I thought it was interesting that when I look at 54th, I see that as an extremely wide road.

If I take in the entire easement, so when Mr.

Doug here said that really there's not much difference, but two feet between 54th and 56.

Again, I've given giving you all the disclaimers I'm now professional.

I don't that's not what my eyes see, and I think it has to do with the way the um sidewalks are raised.

But um I I heard tonight that I think people are open to 56th and 54th becoming one ways, but not to angled parking is what I heard.

All I was really trying to do tonight was get my counsel, and I'm sorry, but I do consider you my counsels.

If it offends you, I'll say the council, to get the council and the public speaking and sharing with with us what they do like and what they don't like.

Okay.

Before I give my just my real quick summary, there were a couple things that I wanted to address.

I I did want to say to Mr.

Porter that I am really surprised about the two feet difference.

I was very surprised by that.

The second thing I thought that was really important was that and uh Barb Brown addressed it, so did um Kelly and now uh council member early that when I said what my four goals my three goals were, I did not specifically say the impact on small businesses because this is designed to make things better, not worse.

Okay.

So I wanted to say that.

Um uh Byron, when you talked about designating, I'm taking all the parking.

Well, then you know, we need to rework that part because I'm not trying to take away your parking.

I'm trying to increase the and use every inch of that parking.

There's several uh places along that side of the street that aren't used at all, and I'm trying to make sure we eke out every single inch.

And at no way was I trying to, when I called the designated parking, I was not saying this is where golf carts park and this is only where golf carts park.

Rather, what I was trying to do is if I need a wider space for somebody who has a handicap spe uh uh tag, and we have more and more of those, and I hear from them all the time that there's not enough, then great, let's combine that with a couple of narrower spots because we don't have to have it be solid cars.

So again, I'm not the professional, very open to reworking that, trying to make things better, not worse.

When I hear about a parking garage between the library and the um senior center, the senior center is going to be expanding into a good bit of that space, so that's not going to be reality.

I already had one workshop where I talked about where you talked about, I should say timed parking and um parking garages and paid parking, and it was no no-no.

So when you talk about let's get a committee together and figure out what the people want, it'll never happen.

I've been hearing that for 12 years.

We don't even have an agreement here on how things can happen, okay.

Um at some point you have to have these workshops, make sure that your council people are listening to you, and the council people have got to be able to make some decisions, but not based on a layman's drawing like I did.

Okay, I acknowledge that.

The decisions have to be made after we see what the professionals have to say once they know what our goals are, okay.

So with that in mind, then I would just say that uh I wrote something in advance.

Um just a couple things I wanted to say because I forget sometimes.

I believe that we're elected to make the tough decisions as well as to do the planning for the future.

What I heard our residents say over and over tonight was many times they were talking about it's not that bad, and they were talking about now.

I don't think they were necessarily acknowledged that the number of employees, and I suspect visitors that are going to happen in the next 12 to 18 months is probably double what it is today.

So to put our head in the sand, in my opinion, is irresponsible.

Uh the second thing I wanted to say is I believe that since Mother Nature has forced us to rebuild smarter and make changes, that the timing is perfect for us to start dealing with this now.

Our parking issues uh for our increasing and and to really consider the number of parking issues for our um aging residents.

I mean, to the best of my knowledge, I'm 72, I still go into town, I still eat pizza, I still go out.

Um, so when I need to have um a spot for handicap parking, I would appreciate having more of it, not less than it.

And then the last thing I would say is um I just really appreciate all of your input.

I'm going to, if you saw me writing, it wasn't because I was being rude.

That's how I retain information.

Is I write notes of what you're saying.

So I'm going to take that information.

I'm going to take the information that the council said, and I'm going to come back at an actual council meeting, and I'm going to make a proposal at then and then see if I can get a consensus to move forward or not.

So I appreciate every person being here who spoke up and voiced their opinion.

And with that before you before you adjourn.

Oh, I didn't have to be able to do that.

So sorry to read those into the record.

Okay, I didn't know if we were doing any comments.

Um the e-comments, you have two.

I have two are both from residents.

Yes.

Yes.

Uh the first one was from Kimberly Lang.

Um she says changing traffic flow and parking downtown Gulfport does not help excuse me, help any of the businesses on Beach Boulevard and seems very dangerous.

Changing streets into one ways will confuse people and make traffic and congestion worse on Beach Boulevard with people trying to turn around.

More handicapped parking is a great idea, but it's marked, it's marked as multiple things on the current map.

Lastly, diagonal parking is already difficult on wide streets.

It would be more difficult on the new one ways.

Lowering the speed limit could be beneficial.

The second item is from Sean Steffi.

I have lived on the corner of 54th Street South and 29th Avenue South here in Gulfport for around five years now, and I am strongly opposed to the proposed changes to traffic flow downtown.

These changes would need to excuse me, needlessly complicate navigating our city and having negative impact on businesses and residents on the streets affected.

Finding parking is already difficult for patrons of our businesses, and these changes would severely restrict parking near them, resulting in more cars crowding residential streets to park.

Thank you.

And with that, I say thank you again.

Meeting adjourned