A Solution in Search of a Problem: Why the Simonton/Angela Street Garage Doesn’t Add Up
Before You Build, You Measure: The Data and Planning Gaps Behind a $6M Garage
Streets for People | Friends of Car-Free Key West & Duval Street/Historic Downtown | Chris Hamilton | January 31, 2026
The January 27 public workshop on the proposed parking garage that will net 89 new spaces at Fire Station #2 was billed as a “listening session,” but it played more like an attempt to justify a project in search of a rationale. About 25 residents attended, along with the Mayor, several commissioners, and a noticeable line of City staff along the back wall. What unfolded was not a data‑driven case for a major capital investment, but a series of broad claims that the garage would somehow satisfy all four of the City’s strategic goals—without offering meaningful evidence to back any of them up.
Staff insisted the garage would advance infrastructure, affordable housing, sustainability/environmental adaptation, and financial stability. Yet no data was presented to demonstrate demand for a garage, no inventory of public and private parking in Old Town was offered, and no analysis was provided to show how this project fits into a broader transportation strategy. As one resident bluntly put it: “All you think about is parking because you are parking guys. I hope the commissioners are looking at the whole of transportation.” It was clear the presenters were not.
Instead, the meeting leaned heavily on the idea that this project “checks all the boxes” and can be started quickly—hardly a justification for a multimillion‑dollar structure in a flood‑prone neighborhood with longstanding safety concerns. The City never fully articulated why this garage is needed, why this location is the right one – other than it’s the easy one, or how it meaningfully advances the community’s long‑term mobility goals.
In the sections below, we examine why the City’s four‑strategic-plan goals argument doesn’t hold up. We explore the missing data including a parking demand study, inventory of existing parking supply and the overall transportation context. We’ll highlight the concerns raised by residents—along with the City’s lack of substantive answers. In earlier articles here and here, we left open the possibility that a well‑justified garage could be a win‑win for Key West. But after this meeting, it’s clear the City has not made a convincing case. Until they do, this project should not move forward.
The City’s “Four Strategic Goals” Argument — And Why It Doesn’t Hold Up
During the presentation, both John Wilkins and City Manager Brian Barroso repeatedly emphasized that the Simonton & Angela garage “beautifully” satisfies all four of the City’s strategic planning goals: infrastructure, financial stability, sustainability/environmental adaptation, and affordable housing. It was the central pillar of their pitch — the idea that this single project neatly aligns with the City’s highest priorities. Yet even a cursory look at the details shows that this is a generous interpretation at best. And while the City’s website lists a slightly different set of strategic priorities for 2024–2025, we’ll take the four goals presented at the meeting as the operative framework. Even on those terms, the case simply doesn’t hold.
1. Sustainability / Environmental Adaptation
It’s hard to imagine anyone genuinely associating sustainability or environmental adaptation with a parking garage. On its face, the claim is absurd. Adding EV chargers is absolutely the right thing to do — but it doesn’t make it a sustainable project. It’s also the easiest box to check, and in this context, it functions more like lipstick on a pig than a meaningful climate strategy. A garage is, by definition, an invitation for more cars to drive into Old Town, not fewer. That alone puts it at odds with any serious sustainability goal. Adding reliable and frequent transit or safer bike lanes – now that’s meeting the goal, but we digress.
Staff also leaned on the idea that the garage would reduce “circling,” but we debunked that thoroughly in our recent Doris Day parking article. The real cause of circling isn’t a lack of structured parking — it’s the illusive free and underpriced on‑street spaces that drivers hunt for like George Costanza searching for the mythical perfect free spot. Until the City addresses that underlying incentive those free spaces pose, a new garage won’t meaningfully change driving patterns or reduce emissions.
2. Affordable Housing
The City’s attempt to link the garage to affordable housing rests entirely on the “third dollar” mechanism — the idea that every additional parking transaction generates a small contribution to the housing fund (33 cents of the third dollar collected for each $6 an hour transaction). That’s fine as far as it goes, but it’s a revenue argument, not a housing argument. Nothing about a parking garage meaningfully advances housing affordability in Key West. It doesn’t create units, preserve existing housing, or reduce costs for workers. It simply assumes that more cars driving into Old Town will produce more transactions, which will produce more dollars, which will eventually trickle into the housing budget.
What was missing was any explanation of scale or impact. How much revenue would the garage realistically generate after you factor in the deeply discounted employee parking permits? How much of that would actually reach the housing fund? And what would that amount accomplish in this market? Staff offered no specific numbers, no projections, and no context for the housing money. Without that, the affordable housing justification feels like an afterthought — a convenient talking point rather than a meaningful policy connection.
If they really wanted to address affordable housing they should have proposed building units on top of the garage, like the proposed garage on Stock Island. That, we would have liked, even if we’d need to scuttle the height limit to do so.
3. Financial Stability
The financial stability argument was presented as one of the strongest justifications for the garage, but it quickly fell apart under even modest scrutiny. Staff projected roughly $400,000 a year in “new” revenue would go into transit, affordable housing and every part of the budget. They emphasized that visitors — not residents — pay 85% of parking fees. On the surface, it sounds good that there’s more money and reassuring that someone else is paying for it. But without a demand study, an inventory of existing parking, or any analysis of utilization patterns, these numbers amount to little more than hopeful arithmetic.
The City is essentially assuming that if it builds a garage, the cars will come. Or would they be cannibalizing from other lots and thus be revenue neutral. Yet they offered no evidence that Old Town suffers from a shortage of parking – other than paid parking is expensive therefore it must be scarce, no data on how often existing lots fill, and no explanation of how discounted employee parking permits — which they also highlighted every chance they could get as ample justification for the project — would affect revenue as those people would be paying $30 a month for a space not $6 an hour. A $6 million capital project amortized over 15 years (City Manager) requires more than optimistic projections; it requires a clear understanding of demand, pricing, and behavior. None of that was presented.
There’s also a political dimension the City didn’t address. If the garage underperforms, residents will inevitably shoulder the burden through higher fees or redirected funds. Framing the garage as a financial win for the City without presenting the underlying assumptions is not transparency — it’s wishful thinking dressed up as fiscal prudence.
4. Infrastructure
Of the four strategic goals, infrastructure is the only one the garage clearly satisfies — but even here, the City’s argument was surprisingly shallow. Staff leaned heavily on the idea that this is the one capital project they can “start within 11 months,” as if speed alone were a justification. Being shovel‑ready is not the same as being strategically necessary. A project can be easy to build and still be the wrong project.
What was missing was any explanation of why a garage, at this location, at this moment, represents the highest and best use of infrastructure dollars. The City dismissed the Stock Island alternative without presenting a transparent comparison, even though a mobility‑focused facility there could support a broader transportation strategy rather than funneling more cars into Old Town. They also dismissed the City lots at the Seaport because of the aesthetically pleasing view.
And there was no discussion of opportunity cost — what other infrastructure needs, such as protected bike lanes, transit buses, repaving of streets and wider sidewalks in and around our main street, might be delayed or displaced by committing $6 million to a garage? The City Manager numerous times mentioned the need for a pump or lift station as the first part of the Duval Street Resiliency Project and that they were going to Tallahassee to get money for it because it was so important. If infrastructure is truly the goal, the City owes the public a clearer rationale than “we can build it quickly.” Infrastructure should solve a problem, not simply fill a timeline.
The Missing Pieces: Demand, Data, Context and Mitigation
A. No Demand Study
At the meeting, Chris Massicotte — president of Keys Last Stand and a current candidate for City Commission — asked staff directly whether a demand study exists. They acknowledged, plainly, that it does not. For a $6 million capital project whose justification hinges on parking demand, that absence is astonishing.
A demand study is the foundation of any responsible parking investment — the basic homework that precedes design, location, financing, and policy decisions. Until the City can demonstrate actual need with real data, the project shouldn’t advance beyond the conceptual stage.
B. No Inventory of Existing Parking
Just as striking as the absence of a demand study is the fact that the City has no inventory of existing parking. Staff offered no data on how many public off and on-street spaces currently exist, how many private lots/spaces operate in Old Town, how often they fill, or what utilization looks like during peak and off‑peak times of day or seasons. Without that baseline, it’s impossible to know whether Old Town is actually short on parking or whether the issue is simply one of pricing, distribution, or management – and we’ve written about the need for better managing demand extensively here, here, here, here and here).
A parking garage is supposed to solve a defined problem. But the City hasn’t demonstrated what the problem is, where it occurs, or how big it might be. Building new supply without understanding existing supply is planning in the dark. Before committing millions to new construction, the City should be able to answer the most basic questions: How many spaces do we have? How are they used? And what specific gap are we trying to fill?
C. No Transportation Context
Perhaps the most revealing gap in the entire presentation was the absence of any transportation context. A parking garage is, fundamentally, a transportation intervention — it shapes how people move, where they go, and what modes the City prioritizes. Yet staff offered no discussion of how this garage fits into Key West’s broader mobility goals, no analysis of travel patterns, and no consideration of how it interacts with transit, biking, walking, or the island’s constrained street network.
Without that context, the garage exists in a vacuum. The City didn’t explain whether it expects more cars to enter Old Town, how those cars will affect congestion, or whether the garage supports or undermines long‑term goals around reducing vehicle dependence. They didn’t address the role of employee parking, visitor turnover, or the well‑documented mismatch between free on‑street parking and paid off‑street supply. In short, they presented a transportation project without a transportation plan to support it.
A responsible mobility strategy starts with understanding how people move today and how the City wants them to move tomorrow. None of that was part of the conversation. And without it, the garage is not a solution — it’s simply an assumption.
D. No Mitigation
In our article of a couple weeks ago we suggested that should the City proceed, at minimum it should provide some mitigation or accommodations to help the garage pill to go down. Those included: dedicating all the new revenue to transit; committing to restarting a free Duval Loop; removing a few parking spaces from nearby retail streets for wider sidewalks/or parklets and bike infrastructure; eliminating nearby free on-street parking, improving wayfinding to all the garages and lots – public and private, and committing to a downtown multi-modal transportation plan. Without these items the garage is simply a sop to car drivers and nobody else.
The Public’s Concerns
If the City expected the workshop to generate enthusiasm for the garage, the public response, with a couple exceptions by business owners looking for employee parking, told a very different story. The people who showed up — business owners, neighborhood residents, civic leaders, and even most of the commissioners — raised concerns that were consistent, substantive, and rooted in lived experience. And it’s worth noting: this was only a fraction of the community. Many voices who share these worries weren’t in the room, but the themes were unmistakable.
Flooding and Site Conditions
One of the clearest messages came from Kate Miano, owner of The Gardens Hotel, who both spoke at the meeting and submitted a detailed letter to the Commission. She described the chronic flooding on Angela Street — not during hurricanes, but after any rain event. Since the fire station and its elevated parking were built, stormwater now cascades down onto Angela like a waterfall. The proposed garage would rely on that same street for all ingress and egress. As she put it, the entrance to a multimillion‑dollar garage cannot be “simply not usable if it rains.”
Her broader point was equally sharp: Key West should be reducing car dependence, not building infrastructure that induces more driving in the historic district.
Congestion, Traffic Flow, and Induced Demand
Residents echoed similar concerns. Old Town already struggles with congestion, and many noted that adding more parking downtown doesn’t solve that problem — it worsens it. Several pointed out that workers increasingly rely on e‑bikes, scooters, rideshare, and transit, and that the City should be supporting those modes rather than doubling down on cars.
Fiscal Concerns and Taxpayer Impact
Commissioner Sam Kaufman, who attended the workshop, posted his own summary afterward. He highlighted a point that never surfaced in the staff presentation: the likely tax impact. Based on standard financing assumptions, a $6 million garage could translate into a 2–3% property tax increase. That burden would fall hardest on small businesses and renters, who already face rising costs and could see higher rents as taxes are passed through.
He also questioned why a downtown garage is being treated as a top priority when flooding mitigation and other critical infrastructure needs remain unaddressed.
Lack of a Transportation Plan
Kaufman’s post also underscored a theme that ran through the entire meeting: the absence of a transportation or transit plan. Residents and business owners repeatedly asked how the garage fits into the City’s mobility goals. No clear answer was offered.
A Call for Thoughtful Planning
Despite the frustration, the tone of the room was constructive. People thanked staff for their professionalism. They asked for data, context, and transparency. They asked the City to read its own studies — including the Stock Island Intermodal Center plan, which many believe offers a more strategic, long‑term solution.
The message was simple: Key West deserves thoughtful planning, not a rushed project that creates more problems than it solves.
A Project in Search of a Problem
Taken together, the City’s presentation, the missing data, and the public’s testimony all point to the same conclusion: the Simonton/Angela Street garage is a project in search of a problem. The City has not demonstrated demand, has not inventoried existing supply, and has not placed the proposal within any coherent transportation strategy. Instead, the justification rests on convenience — it’s “shovel‑ready,” it fits a timeline, and it’s something the City knows how to build.
But infrastructure should solve a real need, not simply fill a calendar.
The public understood this immediately. Residents spoke about flooding, congestion, and neighborhood character. Business owners raised concerns about induced demand and the long‑term consequences of doubling down on cars in Old Town.
Even more telling: the City already has a study outlining a more strategic, long‑term solution — the Stock Island Intermodal Center — which aligns with mobility goals, supports workforce housing, and reduces congestion downtown. That study was barely acknowledged other than to disparage it because of the transit department’s inability to provide reliable funding for service – this from their own staff – not us.
In the end, the January workshop didn’t build a case for the garage. It confirmed what many have been saying for months: Key West deserves a transportation plan, not a parking project. A city that prides itself on sustainability, historic preservation, and livability should not be rushing into a $6 million garage without the data, context, or vision to justify it.
Key West deserves thoughtful planning, not a rushed project that creates more problems than it solves. If the City meant what it said about listening to the community, then the public’s concerns should matter more than the convenience of a shovel‑ready project.
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Note: You can watch the hour and 20-minute meeting here on YouTube.
Chris Hamilton is the founder of Friends of Car-Free Key West & Duval Street/Historic Downtown, a local advocacy group championing sustainable mobility and vibrant public spaces. Subscribe to the blog and follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Substack for updates. All stories are cross posted at KONK Life News. Originally from Washington, D.C., Chris spent over two decades leading nationally acclaimed initiatives in transit, biking, walking, and smart growth for Arlington County, VA’s DOT. Since moving to Key West in 2015, he has embraced a car-free lifestyle downtown, dedicating his time to non-profits and community projects. Explore all Streets for People column articles here.
Well for this to be used by any of my friends. You would have to have instant transportation from Stock Island, downtown and back to the parking when you are ready to go home with that people are not going to wait in a parking garage on Stock Island which does not have good history for security, especially at night