Signs like these help people parking at Neptune Beach's Town Center. | Neptune Beach
Published on January 7, 2026 at 2:42 pm
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Neptune Beach’s City Council lowered the hourly parking rate on Tuesday, after increasing it last fall to help pay to keep the Beaches Town Center shopping area clean.
The reversal comes after council members heard that Town Center parking usage and merchants’ revenue apparently had dropped since the increase.
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Late last year, the City Council approved an increase from $2 to $5 per hour after 5 p.m. daily. But Tuesday night, they voted to change it to $2.50 per hour from 11 a.m. to midnight daily at Neptune Beach’s 253 spaces.
During the lengthy discussion about the rate, council members talked about merchants telling them that parking usage is down 7% since the increase. Restaurant employee Coleen McGregor also said she has seen issues since the parking rates went up.
“We have seen a huge drop in customers,” McGregor said. “Our returning customers, quite a few of them, have personally told me at the door that they will not be coming back to our restaurant because of the parking. If there is no parking in our parking lot, which is very small — I think it’s 18 parking spots — they won’t come.”
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Vice Mayor Nia Livingston proposed lowering the overall hourly rate to $2.50 per hour, with the City Council reevaluating it in March. She suggested the city continue working on ways to help store employees get less expensive parking when they work, with the understanding that “we can’t shoulder all of it.”
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“We only have a very little bit of data. I think it does support what we are trying to accomplish,” Bylund said. “I agree with the fact that we are going into a slower season. … We are trying to come to solutions for employees and parking, and that is going to cost money. I would ask at the same time that we continue the conversations.”
All five council members approved Livingston’s motion for a $2.50 per hour rate.
