SoHo residents see relief in new parking plan

TAMPA -- The city is moving forward with a plan to issue residential parking permits in SoHo, the popular area surrounding the S Howard Avenue commercial strip.

The proposal, which still must be approved by the City Council, was introduced at a neighborhood meeting Monday night where a majority of residents raised their hands in a vote of approval. The permits would affect a 30-block area in the district and is intended to appease residents frustrated with bar patrons, whom they say flood streets with cars, litter and noise at night.

Ybor City and Channelside have already experimented with similar plans, and residents seem to like them, said Jim Corbett, the city's parking manager. In Ybor and Channelside, parking is restricted 24 hours a day, but the SoHo plan would mainly target the nighttime bar and restaurant crowd, Corbett said.

"No one's concerned about parking before 6 p.m.," Corbett said.

The plan would create 454 parking spaces for an estimated 600 residents in the SoHo area. Some areas will either allow no parking at all on the street or resident-only parking. Residents will get one guest parking pass and can buy additional guest passes at $3 per day.

About 60 residents and business owners, including Cheap restaurant and Hyde Park Cafe co-owner Tommy Ortiz and Tampa businessman and County Commission candidate Joe Redner, attended the meeting at Kate Jackson Community Center in Hyde Park. Homeowners supported the resident-only parking, saying the influx of SoHo bars had decreased their quality of life. Some renters, however, argued that the parking restrictions would hamper their ability to have guests over for parties.

Ortiz, whose bars and restaurants have been the target of residents' complaints, also supported parking restrictions, saying his company spent $2-million on a Cleveland Street lot that largely goes unused because patrons park on neighborhood streets to be closer. MacDinton's owner Barry O'Connor has also said he has plenty of parking in a remote lot, but many people don't use it.

City Council member John Dingfelder urged the arguing residents and business owners to vote for the permit plan, to "explore it on a two-year basis and see how it goes."

"If you all wait for a parking garage to be built," he said, "in another 20 years, we'll be sitting here again, having this same conversation."

The crowd voted 34-14 in favor of the plan. Corbett estimated it could take up to 100 days for the plan to be in place, assuming the funding and the plan's restrictions pass two required readings at City Council meetings. Those meetings will be advertised to residents and business owners and open to the public.

-- Emily Nipps, Times staff writer