CLERMONT, Fla – Clermont city leaders have approved a plan to build a new parking garage behind City Hall, a move aimed at easing a growing parking crunch in the city’s downtown district.
The City Council voted unanimously after a special parking garage committee reviewed two possible locations: the existing lot behind City Hall and a site near Mineola Avenue and 7th Avenue.
The City Hall site currently has a little more than 100 parking spaces. City officials said a garage there could increase capacity to about 400 spaces.
A downtown resident identified as Bee said the location makes sense because it keeps the garage close to businesses while avoiding areas closer to the waterfront.
“I feel like this is a more ideal location because people have less to walk in order to get to any of the businesses that are in downtown,” Bee said.
Bee also said building closer to the waterfront could affect natural landscaping and biodiversity, while the City Hall area is already more developed.
Several residents and business owners supported the City Hall location, including Amanda Walsh, owner of Cheeser’s Palace Cafe, which sits next to City Hall.
“We can impact the whole community at centrally located here downtown,” Walsh said, describing the project as an opportunity to add multiple levels of parking in the heart of downtown.
The project is expected to bring short-term disruptions. Construction would temporarily remove parking used by Walsh’s staff and customers.
“We’ll lose those parking spaces during that construction time, of course, and that will be something that we’ll have to work out,” Walsh said.
The alternative site near Mineola Avenue and 7th Avenue would have included a five-story garage with about 300 spaces, but city leaders decided not to move forward with that option.
The next step is preliminary engineering for the City Hall site. After that, the city is expected to seek contractors for the project.
