Downtown Fort Myers may lose zip zones

FORT MYERS, Fla.- The meter on Fort Myers’ zip zones is about to run out.

The city is considering getting rid of the free parking in the downtown area and raising meter rates at the same time.

Fort Myers has had the zip zones for about 10 years. The idea seemed great at the time, free parking to ‘zip’ into a store or office, do some business, and then leave. But the system is confusing and people are complaining about it.

The problem is, free parking means two hours in one spot, per day. You can’t move around downtown and pick up more two-hour chunks of time.

Parking monitors keep track of who’s in zip zones, and ticket drivers who move, every two hours.

“People are angry. They’re angry because they feel, they’ve been ticketed unjustly in the the zip zones,” said Leigh Scrabis with the Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency. “Out of 10 tickets, one would be issued for an overdue meter, and 9 would be issued for the zip zones.”

Fort Myers would replace almost all the zip zones with meters, and raise the price to 75 cents an hour.

Some merchants are not pleased.

“The zips are a good idea, but the signs are not self-explanatory,” said business owner Susan Johnson. “I have been to Tampa, they have the exact same situation and they explain it fully. You have two hours free parking.”
“This is becoming a destination. This is where people want to come to shop, and to play, and to eat,” said Karen Allegretti. “I think we have to adjust how to make it easier to come down here.”

The city will get about  $200,000 extra a year, by going to meters with the 75 cent an hour rate.

City Council may vote on the issue as soon as April.