Miami Beach officials clarify sweeping parking closures for peak spring-break weekends
When the Miami Beach City Commission voted Wednesday for the closure of certain parking garages and lots during two weekends in March, city administrators scrambled to try to interpret the 11th-hour request and nail down the plan with spring break fast approaching.
By Thursday, city officials had reached a conclusion:
All city-owned surface parking lots and most cityowned parking garages south of 42nd Street will be closed from 6 a.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Monday on March 7-10 and March 14-17.
City residents and workers in the area will be allowed to park in those garages and lots at the normal rate by showing identification that proves their residency or employee status.
Other exceptions during those two weekends will be limited. The Convention Center Garage (G11) will remain open at the normal rate. A garage on 42nd Street (G6) will be open to visitors at a $100 flat rate and to residents and employees at the normal rate. During the other three weekends in March, there will be a $30 flat parking rate at all public garages and lots south of 42nd Street. Residents and employees are exempt.
Private parking won’t be affected throughout the month. That includes the garage that is at Fifth Street and Alton Road (G8) and is partially owned by the city but majority-owned by a private company.
City officials outlined the latest strategy in an updated version of a spring-break website, as well as during a virtual meeting with residents Thursday evening.
The sweeping parking closures are a departure from a city plan that was approved in late January and consisted of $100 parking rates and 6 p.m. closures for garages and lots in the South Beach entertainment district during the second and third weekends of March.
The plans announced Thursday also differ from the interpretations of some commissioners who voted on the matter one day earlier.
Commissioner Alex Fernandez, who called for steps to limit parking outside the entertainment district, told the Miami Herald he believed the commission’s vote was to close garages in the entertainment district and impose $100 rates and 6 p.m. closures in other areas below 42nd Street.
On a virtual post-commission meeting recap Thursday, Commissioner David Suarez, who proposed the parking closures in the entertainment district Wednesday, said his understanding was that “four garages” in the entertainment district would be closed during the second and third weekends of March, as opposed to the nine total garage closures announced by the administration.
Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said restricting parking “sends a strong message” that the city is looking to shut down spring break, which brings thousands of young people to Ocean Drive each March and has been marred in recent years by shootings.
“If we can’t solve spring break with this commission and our law-and-order mayor [Steven Meiner], I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to,” Rosen Gonzalez said on the call Thursday.
Suarez said the City Commission was planning to meet Friday to “tie up loose ends” related to spring break.
Late last month, commissioners voted for a host of measures to try to crack down on spring-break partying and limit the number of visitors who flood Ocean Drive. The initiatives include a ban on outdoor seating at sidewalk cafes during the second and third weekends of March, the use of license-plate readers for vehicles entering the city and limits on street parking in South Beach .
More details of the city’s spring-break plans can be found at miamibeachfl .gov/breakup.