FORT MYERS, Fla. — When parking in downtown Fort Myers, you will see the old parking meters are gone and now, new pay stations are scattered across downtown.
"We all pulled up to work one day and there was a meter by the road and they changed the signs" said Amanda the owner of Belladonna House of Beauty.
Some visitors of downtown say they are not liking the change.
"I thought it was a little complicated to figure out," said Ellen Reynolds. "I prefer the old parking meters."
The city told Fox 4's Briana Brownleeit's been planning this shift for years.
Here are the changes:
- 32 new pay stations were installed to replace the old parking meters
- The new pay stations accepts credit cards and coins
- Free two-hour parking now costs $1.50 and $3.00 for an additional hour
- There are still free parking in the 15-minute and 30-minute parking spaces.
Peter Sherwill, the general manager of Denison Parking, said part of the reason for the change is because residents and employees were camping out in the two-hour parking zone.
"I hear people say they come downtown on the weekend and they can’t find parking and they end up going to Cape Coral," Sherwill said. "This is going to create more parking on the street vacancies."
"There is some frustration, there are some people who are used to the free parking, I know myself I used the free parking,” said Liz Bello-Matthews, the city’s spokeswoman. "This is something essentially it was coming for a long time."
The city added that there was some confusion on social media stating people were ticketed for parking in the two-hour parking space. Bello-Matthews said no one has received a ticket, only a warning. However, the city will start ticketing on Saturday.
