Local business owners are sounding the alarm over a proposed paid-parking plan that would carve the island into color-coded zones, warning that charging beachgoers to park could drive away the very customers their livelihoods depend on.

The City of Anna Maria will hold a public hearing Monday at 4 p.m. to present the proposed parking map, which divides the island into paid zones, permit-only residential areas, and time-limited free spots. The largest proposed paid zone covers Gulf Drive and Magnolia Avenue — the island’s busiest tourist corridor — and would convert stretches of currently free parallel parking into paid spaces.

Jill DeCosmo, a bartender at Harry’s Grill on Gulf Drive, said guiding customers to parking has already become part of her job, and she worries a new cost will eat into what visitors have left to spend once they sit down. “You’re $20 already in the hole for parking and you didn’t even eat yet,” she said.

Peter Hortaridis, who manages two restaurants on the island including the 73-year-old Skinny’s, said the plan raises basic fairness questions for vacationers renting on the island short-term. “Are they supposed to pay for a parking spot, pay for a permit when they’re only here for a vacation?” he said. Hortaridis argued the proposal risks turning Anna Maria into a more commercialized destination like St. Petersburg or Miami, and said he’s considering a petition ahead of Monday’s hearing.

City officials frame the plan differently, pointing to real overcrowding problems that have made the issue difficult to ignore. The city commission approved spending more than $111,000 in April on a parking study by consulting firm WSP, now four months into a six-month review of every public parking spot on the island. Meeting minutes from an April 9 commission session show residents describing beach conditions as “intolerable,” citing rows of up to 15 commercial cabana tents crowding the shoreline near Palm Avenue and Magnolia — with some residents saying the beach had become “overly commercialized” and pressing commissioners to act.

Whether taxing parking is the right fix for a problem largely driven by commercial beach vendors, rather than by the local businesses and residents now facing new fees, is likely to be a central question at Monday’s hearing.

An implementation workshop is scheduled for Oct. 22, with WSP’s final report — including cost estimates, enforcement plans, and projected revenue — expected this fall. Even if the plan is approved, officials say parking meters or payment systems would not appear immediately.

Residents and business owners can weigh in at Anna Maria City Hall, 10005 Gulf Drive, at Monday’s 4 p.m. hearing.

Follow the St. Pete-Clearwater Sun on Facebook, Google, & X

St. Pete-Clearwater Sun: local St. Pete-Clearwater & Tampa Bay, FL news at PIE-Sun.com