Clerics urge City of Sarasota leaders to keep parking free and downtown churches alive.
By Noah Bookstein
Original Air Date: May 20, 2026
Host: A plan to expand paid parking on Sundays brought upon the City of Sarasota the wrath of downtown churches. Noah Bookstein tells you whether the city repented.
Noah Bookstein: On Monday, May 18, the Sarasota City Commission discussed a proposed ordinance that would make significant changes to downtown parking, spurring an uproar from the pews. John Cross, a pastor at First Baptist Church, wanted to remind the city who he thinks is boss in Sarasota.
John Cross: I would like to just lovingly remind all of us that three of our five downtown churches precede the city charter.
NB: The churches were clear in asking the city to consider church attendance as a factor in the parking decision. Here is Brett DeHart, the pastor at First United Methodist Church.
First United Methodist Church
Brett DeHart: Downtown churches across the country are either dying or dead. All over the country. That is not the case. Sarasota is an anomaly, and we’d like to keep it that way, but we need policy that encourages that to happen.
NB: One speaker after another voiced concerns as congregants filled the seats in the commission chambers. They said Sunday paid parking would burden seniors, discourage attendance and threaten regular Sunday worship at the churches. Robert Carter, representing the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, explained that making decisions to support a strong Christian presence downtown is good governance.
Robert Carter: No one will ever dispute that the city of Sarasota faces legitimate parking infrastructure expenses. Garages have to be maintained, elevators repaired, debt obligations met. But good governance is not simply balancing spreadsheets. It is, in fact, balancing priorities, values and the character of a community. Our downtown churches are not occasional users of public space. They’re among the city’s oldest and most consistent civic institutions.
NB: It was a powerful showing, but when Commissioner Liz Alpert started asking Parking Division General Manager Broxton Harvey exactly how the churches would be affected, the picture got complicated.
Church of the Redeemer
Liz Alpert: Church of the Redeemer—don’t they have access to Gulfstream, which is all free parking?
Broxton Harvey: Yes, that is correct. That is 77 spaces, three-hour, and then another 25 to 40 that are two hours.
LA: And then the First Baptist Church—that’s located on Main Street, but all of the side streets surrounding it are free parking, isn’t that correct?
BH: Timed or no restrictions at all. So, totally free, yes.
LA: So there’s a lot of parking around there. So there’s an agreement with the church that’s on Pineapple?
BH: Correct.
LA: And Pineapple is free parking, correct?
BH: Yes, it is.
First Sarasota Downtown Baptist Church
LA: Yes. There aren’t a lot of spaces, it doesn’t seem like to me, that impact the churches where we’re charging for parking.
BH: That’s a correct statement. The only one that I would say that the paid parking would impact is First Baptist.
LA: But that’s just the spots that are on Main Street. There’s a lot of state streets, aren’t there?
BH: Correct.
LA: Yes. So they would have that, and they do have a parking lot.
NB: First United Methodist already has a city contract guaranteeing free parking for another decade. So, what is actually changing under the proposed ordinance? Spots that are currently free remain that way, and spots that are only time restricted do not become paid. On-street paid spaces would now be enforced seven days a week all the way until midnight. That includes spaces at St. Armand’s Circle, and city-owned lots and garages would move to 24-hour seven-day enforcement.
Parking fines are also going up—standard violations by $5, and blocking a fire lane jumps to a flat $50. The parking department says it needs the money. Garage occupancy has dropped since the hurricanes, and as an enterprise fund, it can’t draw on general tax dollars and needs to pay for itself.
Still, the pressure from the churches seemed to work. Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch raised her eyebrows at the prospect of expanding Sunday paid parking.
Jen Ahearn-Koch: I did not understand that we were going to be expanding paid parking to Sunday. Expanding it to Sunday—the paid parking—is a new, uncomfortable space for me.
NB: Commissioner Kyle Battie recanted his support for the ordinance on the reread.
Kyle Battie: Although I did support it on the first reading, I don’t think that I can support paid parking on the second reading.
NB: Harvey acknowledged there are alternatives: rolling paid Sunday hours back to 1 p.m. or scrapping the expanded hours entirely and simply raising rates.
Tom Pfaff: Chaplain Tom Pfaff, Sarasota Ministerial Association. Now, I turned 80 this year, and I remember the day when on Sundays you couldn’t buy alcohol. On Sundays, businesses were closed, and I’m hoping this morning that I don’t remember the day when I can go to church and brunch and not have to pay for parking.
NB: The commission did not take a final vote. The ordinance remains under consideration. For now, people can park for free on Sunday mornings in downtown Sarasota. For WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.
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