Some Five Points merchants are discussing ways to alleviate parking woes some people are experiencing in the pocket of two-hour street parking along Lomax Street.
Signage installed along the Lomax Street corridor off Park Street denotes parking is restricted to a maximum of two hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, except for Sunday. While the two-hour parking limit may not necessarily impact patrons dining at Five Points restaurants, shopping in boutiques, or just exploring the area, Chris Screws, owner of Sublime Hair + Co., said the time limit has caused issues for some clients at his salon, many of whom book services that take longer than two hours to complete.
“We’ve actually had quite a few situations where clients have gotten tickets,” Screws said. “So we actually go get them off their car, and we ask them if they’re leaving and [the tickets] are on their car, to bring them back to us.”
According to the City of Jacksonville Office of Public Parking, a citation for overtime parking is $15. Screws said the salon has begun paying the parking tickets for their clients.
Parking remains a hot topic for the Five Points merchants’ corridor. Five Points Association President Dori Thomsen said the association will hold a meeting to discuss how best to address the Lomax Street parking situation. However, a more immediate compromise could be to extend the parking limit to three hours.
“I think the best solution is to make it coincide with the Park Street parking and have everything be three-hour parking,” Thomsen said. “…And then, as a customer, if you are receiving a service that’s longer than three hours, I think it’s up to the business to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got three-hour parking, if you don’t want to have to move your car in the middle of the service, please park on the side streets.’”
Thomsen also emphasized that there is ample street parking along Five Points’ side streets, adding that these prime storefront parking spaces should be left for the public to use rather than employees.
Screws agreed.
“I’ll walk a mile [to the salon],” Screws said.
City of Jacksonville Chief of Traffic Engineering Chris LeDew attended the Oct. 13 Five Points Association meeting to discuss the issue and possible remedies after the traffic engineering department received a complaint about the two-hour parking limit on Lomax Street.
LeDew explained that typically, signage like the two-hour parking is installed based on what are considered “community standards.”
“Time limit parking, no trucks parking, no overnight parking, things like that,” LeDew said.
LeDew said there isn’t a formal process for requests like this beyond knocking on doors, sending petitions, or other mailings to build community consensus. He reminded those in attendance that the two-hour limit signs were placed there because, at one point, a merchant or a group of merchants requested them.
“Once upon a time, there was a business that wanted that two-hour parking,” LeDew said. “So it’s changed, and that’s great. We’ll change, and we’ll put up some new signs. What we want to avoid is changing every five months because, as businesses come and go, their needs change a little bit.”
A date for the Five Points Association meeting regarding parking has not yet been set. The next association meeting is Monday, Nov. 10, at 10 a.m. The meetings are held in Bittinger Hall at Riverside Presbyterian Church.
