Perceived lack of parking in the downtown business district, especially during season, is a perennial issue for city officials and business owners.
But an unofficial audit of public parking by council member Bob Daniels suggests that the real problem may be lack of awareness of available spots rather than a shortage.
Daniels said that in the last six years the city has added, or is preparing to add, at least 800 spaces.
“The bottom line is, in the downtown area particularly, we have a lot of empty parking spaces now, when we have the snowbirds and the tourists,” Daniels said. “We don’t need to go out and spend $10 to $15 million when we have the surface parking we have.”