Lakeland officials may have devised a system to allow some of the employees of downtown businesses to access free parking.
City commissioners are expected to vote Monday on a proposal that will allow downtown business owners to register up to five employees for free parking permits, called the Downtown Service Industry Employee Permit, or dubbed the Blue Dot program for short.
“I’m really so excited about this,” Commissioner Stephanie Madden said. “Having your employees have a place to park that’s predictable and free is huge for hourly wage employees.”
If approved, the downtown business owners will be able to register up to five employees for parking permits for the South Tennessee Lot, formerly Lot B, south of Lime Street.
Tess Schwartz, the city’s traffic operations manager, said the South Tennessee Lot has some monthly permit holders but is currently under-utilized. The permit fee was reduced to $50 per month in June.
Business owners will be able to sign up for five parking permits for their service industry employees through Nov. 15, or whenever all available spaces have been allocated. The city has given examples of “service industry workers” as cashiers, restaurant workers, retail, cleaning, personnel service, protective service, hospitality workers, entertainment and others in the ordinance.