Event Parking No Longer Allowed at Harbour Pointe Complex
By 
For years, people have used the parking lot behind the Harbor Pointe Complex as a landing point for their downtown Safety Harbor journeys, whether they were grabbing a coffee at Starbucks or attending an event at the nearby marina.
But overcrowding and other issues recently forced the property owners to put an end to the practice.
According to Olympia Development Group property manager Jason Richko, the decision to enforce the private parking only policy was made in the best interest of the their tenants and patrons.
“The lot is private parking for our tenants only,” Richko told Safety Harbor Connect. “By having it open to the public, it takes away spaces for our tenants and the people who patronize their businesses.”
Richko said the steady increase in attendance at special events, plus new construction in the area and recent trouble with teenagers congregating on the property all led to the decision to close the lot to the public.
“The events are getting bigger, all the shops in the complex are full, the town homes are being built, it’s just chaos back there,” he said.
“It was getting out of control to the point that I had to man the parking lot during events, and I just don’t have the time to do that.”
Richko said permanent signs will soon be added to the current no trespassing signs that were erected back in January to curtail loitering in the area.
He also said understands downtown visitors might be unhappy with the decision, but as property owners, they have to do what’s best for their tenants.
“Our tenants were complaining all the time that their customers had nowhere to park, so we had to do something about it,” Richko said.
“Believe me, I would let people park back there if we had the space.”
Note: Public parking for downtown Safety Harbor is available in the lot on 8th Avenue North, as well as on side streets, where permitted.
Related:
- Cops To Curtail Kids Congregating On Private Property at Safety Harbor Events
- Parking Problems Heat Up In Downtown Safety Harbor
- Obscure Parking Ordinance Rankles Safety Harbor Residents
All this banter is worthless. It is SEVERAL YEARS OLD. What is Safety Harbor’s (SH) 3rd Friday Event parking status for 2019? Golf Cart community? Idiotic! I am not buying a Golf Cart and try to drive it from the Clearwater/St. Petersburg Airport area to 3rd Friday. I’d probably not make it ALIVE. Your public parking map seems to be quite out-of-date and also not applicable to 3rd Friday when a hunk of Main Street is not available, though it is indicated as such. SH either needs to update its map with contrasting colors for different situations OR have a separate map for Event public parking. Surely SH’s council could be more proactive than the U.S. House and/or Senate. I do not wish to come to 3rd Friday just to get a Parking Ticket, or worse, get my classic 1963 Thunderbird TOWED! This visitor says – HELP ! ! !
Owners were nice enough to let people park there all this time. Gets expected, no good deed goes unpunished.
I would think a more profitable solution would be for the owner to charge for parking and let the businesses validate their customers.
Who knows, maybe Safety Harbor should become a golf cart community once the parking is all gone. I think one of the Commissioners proposed this once but I forget who.
So, if you are grabbing a cup of joe at starbucks and then going to the event, can you park there? This plaza sure seems to be going out of its way to be unneighborly by banning parking and “loitering”. That spot of land is critical to the downtown events and to the perception of the entire town….it needs to remain an area for friendly loitering and a hub for downtown events….
It is private property. They can do what they want.
The teenagers and the people parking there while tenants have no parking aren’t being neighborly either. If your driveway is full would you just park in your neighbor’s and then accuse them of not being neighborly when hey kick you off?
Perhaps the city could purchase the lot at 2nd and Main and put an environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing (a couple of trees) parking lot there
Michael, that lot (which is a hair under one acre) is for sale for $1.6 million. The city bought 13 waterfront acres for $2.7 million. While your idea is a plausible one, it will never happen. The city won’t spend that kind of money – even though weekend and event parking is badly needed, even moreso now that the private Crispers/HarborPoint lot has instituted this policy.
I emailed every commissioner 3-4 months ago on this subject; not a single commissioner replied, which leads me to believe: none have a plan. Too busy discussing trees for 8 months to take on other important topics.
There were several points that I made in that email:
– the parcel of the new Iron Age homes took away 30-40 parking spaces (well, people parking on private property, the land owner was nice enough to simply let people park there)
– the parallel lot (empty rectangular lot between the new Iron Age homes and the Chamber of Commerce) will be developed
– the large empty lot at the corner of 2nd and Main is for sale and will be developed
– combined, these 3 parcels accommodated 100-150+ cars for event parking … what happens 2 years from now when all are gone?
– parking, land purchases, lot construction take time … planning needs to START NOW … the commission can’t wake up one day, after the problem is worse, and expect an instant solution.
And the respone from every commissioner was …. absolutely nothing.
:-/
I fully understand them wanting customers & employees to have parking. Just good sense. It will only get worse when the houses on iron age get finished & if/when (hopefully never) the condos get built. If something gets built on the north side of 2nd & Main things will become impossible without more parking. Perhaps some of the business, govi & school lots could be opened to the public when they are not in use.
As a third Friday visitor, I can attest that the parking in the area is abysmal, but the decision to ban visitor parking in that particular lot is absolutely ridiculous. The city is cutting off the nose to spite the face by choosing to do so. As a casual visitor, I have no desire to circle neighborhoods for parking just to enjoy an hour of casual shopping. What a shame. I can buy my tchotchkes and cupcakes elsewhere and find better parking to boot.
The city doesn’t own the lot. It is a private lot. Maybe we should park on your lawn.