Downtown Fort Myers may feature free parking in the evening

A quick trip to downtown Fort Myers might net you a parking ticket, and that’s exactly what happened to Cape Coral resident Karla Dias on Monday.

“I just thought it was like crazy on time,” said Dias. “Like it was 12:13 p.m., I am on my own mobile, trying to pay for an extra hour and I’m already getting a ticket. So, there is no buffer time.”

Parking downtown became more stressful thanks to the City of Fort Myers’s changes back in December of 2023.

And soon enough, the city council might consider changes to the time required for paid parking.

At Monday’s council meeting, Johnny Streets, councilmember for Ward 2, addressed the topic.

He asked his fellow council members if people who attend their city council meetings or wish to meet with them at city hall – have to pay for parking as the signs right now require drivers to pay for parking from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

But just last year, parking was only enforced until 5 or 5:30 p.m.

“The reason we moved it was to keep employees of downtown from parking in those spaces and having them available for the patrons,” said Kevin Anderson, the mayor of the City of Fort Myers.

But councilmember of Ward 4 Liston “Lin” Bochette III suggested looking toward the best interest of the businesses in downtown Fort Myers. He proposed free parking from 6 to 9 p.m. to help encourage people to come downtown.

The recent changes have pushed some people away.

“Having to fumble through the apps and everything, try and figure out how to pay for your parking,” said Fort Myers resident Steve Cardiff. “It’s a hassle. So, I’m avoiding downtown.”

But the problems aren’t so much with the time limit. It’s as Cardiff said: parking in downtown has just become too confusing.

“People seem to be confused about the parking,” Max Curtis said, co-owner of Taco Works in Downtown. “It’s very common. It’s probably 5 or 6 questions a day, from customers coming in, or not even customers, just people walking by trying to figure out where to park, how much do they pay, what their time limits.”

Instead of changes to the limit of 9 p.m., locals would like to see changes during the daytime.

Especially during the lunch rush.

“I think they should eliminate the paid parking period, at least or maybe a period of 1 or 2 hours so that people can come down here and do exactly this,” said Cardiff. “Have a quick taco or quick pick up at a store or go to the library, which I used to often do, but not anymore.”