JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Finding parking in Riverside is driving some people crazy. New restaurants and businesses in the area, and the new layout of street parking, have some questioning why the city allows new businesses without adding more parking.
Parking rules have always been in place, and new legislation is making it clear what restaurants and bars must provide.
Debbie Johnston is lucky. She found a place to park in Riverside on Friday afternoon without any problem, but she knows that would not be the case at night.
"Weekends are pretty bad. Just getting in and out is difficult anyway, and then having to find something, it does deter you from coming down," Johnston said.
And that is exactly what city councilman Jim Love is trying to avoid. He has introduced new legislation that cleans up city rules when it comes to the number of parking spots that bars, restaurants and businesses must have in order to operate.
"Actually, it's to clear up some of the language in the parking rules," Love said.
The law says there must be one parking spot for every four tables. The confusion lies with outside and patio seating. Now officials will make sure those seats are counted, and they have to take into account the number of employees working during peak business hours.
"We have always included outdoor seating as public rooms, but it really does not fit. And so instead, we call it patron seating, which includes outdoor and indoor, which we always included anyway, but now it's more precise," Love said.
The rules do make a difference. The old Yesterdays bar, which will soon be transformed into a new establishment, had to make some changes in order to get permits for the building.
"They had to work with the city and several business owners in the area. They had written that 280 seats were going to be way too many for the area and parking was not adequate for that many seats. So they made adjustments, and from what I hear, everything got approved after they reduced the seating," Sandy Arthur, an employee at the new restaurant, said.
There have been other changes in parking in Riverside. News4Jax has been showing how on some of the two-way roads in Riverside, where parking is allowed on both sides of the road, new painted lines allow for only one lane of traffic.
Love says it has slowed things down and officials are still assessing if that's working, even though some residents have complained that there is not enough room on the street to drive safely.