Pay to park spots on South 7th Street in Fernandina Beach, marked with street signs and the QR code to access the system. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 18, 2026 at 8:05 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Almost 75% of Fernandina Beach voters voted in favor of banning paid parking in the center of the historic city’s Downtown.
Unofficial results Tuesday evening show 3,884 votes in favor of ending paid parking, with 1,299 votes for it to continue.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
But the citizen vote may not be the final word. The City Commission could potentially overturn it with a supermajority vote of four out of five commissioners. The earliest the commission could possibly vote on the citizen initiative result would be at its next meeting, set for 6 p.m. on Sept. 1, at Fernandina Beach City Hall.
The City Commission last year set a priority to develop sources of revenue other than taxes, pointing to the need due to the city’s growth. A report projected additional revenue of $1.5 million to $2.5 million annually if paid parking were instituted.
The added revenue would help fund projects like a new $20 million to $25 million seawall, demolishing Brett’s Waterway Cafe to expand existing docks and rebuilding aging Downtown infrastructure, the city said.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Paid parking, which went into effect in February of this year, includes all public lots and spaces along Centre Street from Ash Street to Alachua Street. It also includes Front Street east to but not including 8th Street. Those who park get a 20-minute grace period so they can briefly stop to run an errand without paying, city officials said.
After that, parking costs $2 per hour between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Those who live in the zone can get two annual permits for free, while non-residents can pay $124 annually for a pass. The city has a contract with One Parking, Inc. to manage the paid parking.
The city had faced serious initial opposition to the paid parking proposal, resulting in an October lawsuit demanding an injunction to stop it from being initiated until this week’s voter referendum. But a judge dismissed most of that citizen complaint.
Since then, many residents have taken to a Citizens Against Paid Parking Facebook page to support the ballot initiative against paid parking.
Fernandina Beach officials reported that the paid parking program had taken in about $580,000 in net revenue from the time it started in February until the beginning of August. It also said that much of that money came from out-of-town visitors from Jacksonville, St. Augustine and parts of Clay County, according to news partner News4Jax.
