MOUNT DORA, Fla. – The Mount Dora City Council recently approved what it hopes will be a solution to downtown Mount Dora’s parking woes.
Back in January, News 6 told you about the city of Mount Dora discussing bringing parking shuttles to the area to help with parking problems.
At its most recent meeting, the city approved a year-long pilot program that will bring three electric shuttles to Mount Dora through FreeBee.
Local businesses are optimistic about the new shuttles.
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“I hope it works,” said Piglet’s Pantry owner, Carla Pereira. “We have been out here a long time, and parking has been an issue since day one.”
Piglet’s Pantry has been in Mount Dora for 27 years. Pereira said it’s always tough for customers to find parking.
“It’s just every day,” Pereira said. “It’s just they’re saying wow it’s hard to find parking down here.”
While Pereira is excited about the possibilities of more customers being able to find parking, she does have some reservations.
“I think it’ll be great,” Pereira said. “But it just has to be consistent. People have got to be willing to do it.”
Ellen Heizman works at Noni at the Olive Branch in downtown Mount Dora. She said that not only do people struggle with the lack of parking — they struggle with parallel parking.
“It would be a great thing,” Heizman said. “There’s not enough parking down here.”
At a recent city council meeting, council members gave the green light to the pilot program.
“Parking has always been the biggest topic in Mount Dora for literally decades,” said Mount Dora Mayor, Crissy Stile.
Each climate-controlled shuttle will have 5 seats. During the pilot program 2 shuttles, with a third on standby, will run on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. inside the community redevelopment agency’s district.
“We can call at any time and say ‘Hey we need to add a fourth vehicle, we want to add Thursdays or we want to add all 7 days, I mean it’s that flexible,” Stile said.
While the city hasn’t finalized a route for the shuttles Stile has an idea of what people can expect.
“It’ll come all the way through downtown, wrap up around Highland Street, as well, because we always try to drive business up to our businesses that are up on Highland as well — some great breweries and restaurants up there,” Stile said. “It’s going to kind of make that loop, and they’ll be clearly marked as to where the stops are and where the parking is.”
Stile said the shuttle service also provides an app for people to use to show routes, where the stops are and will provide emergency alerts such as for inclement weather.
The program is set to begin Oct. 1, 2024, and will end Sept. 30, 2025. If it’s successful, the program may extend into a multi-year contract for an additional pair of two-year terms.
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