Franklin County Commissioners will hold a public hearing in early April to change to the county's parking ordinance to allow for booting cars that are parked illegally, particularly at Alligator Point.
Parking has been a constant problem at Alligator Point for years because there aren’t many places to park, and visitors tend to take liberties once all the legal parking spaces are filled.
There have been complaints of beach goers parking on dunes, vegetation, and even private property, including people's driveways.
The problem is worst near public beach access points where there are an average of 10 parking spaces for the public – but sometimes 30 or 40 cars that need to park especially during busy weekends during the summer and spring break.
Over the past few weeks the sheriff's department has been enforcing a zero tolerance program toward illegal parking called “Ticket and tow it.”
The Sheriff's office would prefer to be able to put boots on the vehicles so they can't be driven away, but the current rules don't allow that.
Instead illegally parked vehicles are towed to Eastpoint or Wakulla County which is a huge expense.
If the county allows the boots, then people could pay their fine on-site, and while they won't be happy about it, it would save the expense of getting their car out of an impound lot.
It will also save people from having to find transportation out of Alligator Point if their vehicle has been towed away.
The booting proposal has been discussed in the past but the county has never adopted it – but that is likely about to change.
The County commission will schedule a public hearing for their first meeting in April to discuss allowing the boots.
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