Side street parking on Sunset Beach no longer free starting Monday

TREASURE ISLAND — After more than two years of planning, Treasure Island will inaugurate its pay-by-plate parking system on Sunset Beach starting Monday, July 29. Finding a parking place in this beach community will never be the same.

Under the new pay-by-plate plan, parking enforcement officers will utilize license plate reader technology to monitor compliance, with fines of $60 per violation issued for parking infractions.

The system uses specialized cameras mounted to parking enforcement vehicles to read license plates as an officer drives along. As the camera scans the plates, it will recognize if a plate has an active parking session or not.

The city said residents that have purchased a pass will have their plates “whitelisted,” meaning the system will always treat these plates as “paid.”

In one of the biggest changes, parking on side streets of Sunset Beach will no longer be free. Visitors will now have to use the ParkMobile app to pay for parking.

No new parking spaces have been created. Where it was legal to park in the past, it will continue to be legal, at a cost $5 per hour using the ParkMobile app. In addition, side-street parking rates apply 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.

City officials note visitors to Sunset Beach are asked to pay close attention to signs; some side streets allow parking on both sides of the street 7 days a week, while other streets only allow parking on one side of the street on weekends and holidays.

“This program, being tested in Sunset Beach, aims to encourage visitors to use city parking lots first and ensure public safety. These rules exist for public safety purposes, ensuring emergency vehicles can access all roadways. This allows residents to have unobstructed access to their driveways and property,” a city statement said.

City lots offer a lower hourly rate of $3.75. All city-owned parking lots are metered or have pay stations and take credit cards. Visitors can pay by using a smartphone and the ParkMobile app, or at the meters or pay stations using a credit or debit card.

Sunset Beach Parking lots include

• Heron Lot at Bay Shore Drive and 75th Avenue with15 spaces;

• Sunset Inn at West Gulf Boulevard and 80th Avenue with 6 spaces;

• Tern Lot at West Gulf Boulevard and 77th Avenue with 55 spaces;

• Ring-Billed Gull Lot at West Gulf Boulevard between 82nd and 81st avenues, with 43 spaces;

• Black Skimmer Lot at West Gulf Boulevard between 80th Terrace and 80th Avenue, with 16 spaces.

• Brown Pelican Lot, at West Gulf Boulevard and 88th Avenue, with 10 spaces.

— By Mark Schantz, Tampa Bay Newspapers correspondent