Orlando City Council approves new downtown parking guidelines

While charging future Amway Center guests to park in front of your home or business is not a bad way to make money in downtown Orlando, it now won’t be so inexpensive.

The Orlando City Council voted Monday to require landowners to follow new guidelines.

Harry Amos of the Harvest Baptist Church might be sitting on a gold mine just blocks from the new Amway Center.

The church and private school can hold 30 to 40 cars in the front.

"Plus we have a lot in the back of the church that could probably fit let's say about 80 cars," Amos said.

The church could earn up to $500 a night by charging $5 a car.

"Go magic, go. Have 15 games a week and we can do it. It would be a good income source," Amos said.

However, the City Beautiful is cracking down on how people can use their private downtown lots and homes for "parking for profit."

"This is the first time we've had this time of activity in the downtown core,” said Walter Hawkins, the director of urban development. “So we want to again research it and make sure and we're doing this adequate for our customers downtown."

There will be new rules such as:

• adequate lighting
• parking on grass will only be allowed by churches and other institutions as long as it doesn't ruin the quality of the grass
• the lot must have an attendant at all times

There is now a $275 temporary permit fee.

"A lot of these neighborhoods and neighbors will be making some money so the $115 from an investment standpoint in the long run, they can make hundreds of more or thousands of dollars from that," Hawkins said.

The new rules will not affect everyone downtown.

Amos and his church will not have to worry about the new rules. Their church property is approximately 500 feet outside the zone.

Back in June, the council voted to charge Amway Center guests $20 to park in adjacent garages.

There will be another 8,000 parking spots within a five to 10 minute walk of the Amway Center, which will cost $10.