Study: Imagine Clearwater plan will eliminate about 700 parking spots

CLEARWATER, Fla. (FOX 13) - As the city of Clearwater prepares to redesign downtown and the waterfront, officials have run into a problem.

A plan designed to bring more people to the city will eliminate hundreds of parking spaces.

Mayor George Cretekos says Clearwater hired a firm to conduct a study and it found the city stands to lose almost 700 parking spaces in its Imagine Clearwater plan, which is centered on a re-design of Coachman Park.

Dale Robinson runs a pizza shop on Cleveland Street and is worried this could mean fewer customers, but the mayor says his team is working on a solution.

“My problem is: Say they have a concert venue that attracts more people, but then my customers don’t have a place to park [and] I lose business,” Robinson pointed out.

“We are trying to identify possible parking areas,” Cretekos said. “We are trying to identify possible demand.”

The mayor says one idea is to redevelop the property where the old city hall sits into an area that would add parking. But he says the city is looking at all options.