Flagler Beach is moving toward a paid parking system for non-residents, with city leaders set to issue a request for qualifications on June 1 and take submissions from firms through July 2. Officials have not approved any paid parking plan, but the city is beginning the formal search for companies that can run parking operations and enforcement if the idea advances.
The discussion picked up on May 14, when commissioners revisited a subject that has sat in the background for years. Mayor Patti King said, “We’re starting our investigation into paid parking,” while Commissioner Scott Spradley argued the issue was long overdue. “I think it’s great that this is finally before us,” he said, adding that parking in Flagler Beach has been limited since the city’s early days and still falls short of daily demand.
The request for qualifications asks firms to show experience in parking operations and customer service, enforcement, technology integration and revenue management. That marks a shift from earlier ideas. The city’s parking committee was formed in 2013 after a parking workshop that same year, and the ad hoc panel released its final report and recommendation in 2015. Before that, three companies visited Flagler Beach to study whether a paid parking system could work, and the concept then centered on stick or poled parking meters.
Spradley said the city’s parking stock has not kept pace with growth. “It seems like as businesses have grown and as our residents’ units have expanded north and south, we still have the same amount of parking that we had many years ago, which is still insufficient to cover our daily needs,” he said. He also said newer technology makes the idea more workable than it once was because the city would not have to keep replacing meters with short lives.
Under the study now being discussed, Flagler Beach residents would be expected to receive a pass if paid parking is adopted, while visitors would provide most of the revenue. Palm Coast residents would not be exempt, according to FlaglerLive. City Manager Dale Martin said paid parking is only the first step in a 13-to-15-year process and said it could be in place in early 2027 on his timeline. Commission Chair Eric Cooley said the process could take longer — “Or longer,” he said — and warned against treating the discussion as a done deal before the data arrives.
That caution matters because Flagler Beach is already under parking pressure from the ongoing pier construction, and a similar squeeze surfaced during construction of the Compass by Margaritaville hotel, which opened last year. The city has debated paid parking for about three decades, but this time the issue is moving from talk to procurement. The next hard date is June 1, when the city plans to seek qualifications from firms that could turn a longtime argument into a working system.
