John's Pass Parking Is Moving Off the Surface Lots, and Festival Weekend Shows How It Will Work
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
At the 45th annual John's Pass Seafood Festival, October 23 through 25, the John's Pass Village lot will be closed to parking and used only for shuttle drop-off. It's only one weekend, but it gives a fair preview. Over the next few years, parking at the east end of the boardwalk is set to shift away from open surface lots. Three things will take their place: shuttles and transit on busy days, a private garage with a capped public rate, and temporary paid lots on Gulf Boulevard parcels that have sat empty since the 2024 storms.
None of these pieces is complete yet, and each one is at a different stage of approval.
| Piece | Where it stands as of October 7, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Festival shuttles and lot closure | Set for October 23–25 |
| Hotel garage on the 1.5-acre lot at 129th Avenue East | Approved in July 2026. No construction start reported |
| City parking garage | Feasibility study hired in spring 2026. No findings released |
| Temporary standalone paid lots | Ordinance 2026-16 recommended by the Planning Commission in September. No final commission vote found |
The City of Madeira Beach's festival page lists two free shuttle stops:
The festival itself is at 12902 Village Blvd. Hours are noon to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. The Madeira Beach Recreation Department is hosting. On Friday from 7 to 9 p.m., Homegrown: The Zac Brown Band Tribute Experience is on the schedule. The night before, Thursday, October 22, there's a separately ticketed Grouper Fish Fry from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $30 plus fees, and Something Major plays.
The festival listing says city lots cost $4 an hour, event rates apply at the John's Pass garage, and private lots set their own prices. The $4 rate took effect after a city increase announced in September 2024. The city also asks drivers to download the ParkMobile app before they arrive.
If you're coming from another beach town, PSTA's Suncoast Beach Trolley runs along Gulf Boulevard for $2.25 a ride. Service is extended on Fridays and Saturdays. Sources differ on frequency. PSTA lists trips every 30 minutes, and the regional tourism listing says every 20 to 30. Check the live schedule before you go.
For three days, then, the Village handles its biggest crowd of the year without its main surface lot. Once hotel construction starts, that lot will be closed for much longer.
In July, the Madeira Beach City Commission voted 4-0 to approve a Marriott Tribute hotel with 87 rooms on a 1.5-acre surface parking lot at the southeast corner of 129th Avenue East and Pelican Lane. Commissioner David Tagliarini was absent. Local developer Bill Karns is leading the project in partnership with Marcus Winters, who owns Caddy's. Tim Clemmons of Place Architecture designed it to match the fishing-village look of John's Pass.
Coverage of the project doesn't agree on every number. The Tampa Bay Times put the cost at about $115 million and called the building five stories. St. Pete Rising reported $150 million and six stories. The parking terms are largely consistent between the two.
| Parking detail in the approved plan | What the reporting says |
|---|---|
| Garage size | 264 spaces in the Times account, 267 in St. Pete Rising |
| Public spaces | 92 spaces reserved for paid public parking |
| Public rate | Capped at $1 above the city's hourly rate, or $5 an hour at the current rate |
| Street changes | Pelican Lane extended to Boardwalk Place; part of Fisherman's Alley vacated, with both ends left open |
| During construction | Developer's attorney said Boardwalk Place and East End Lane stay open |
The rate cap matters to anyone who parks there regularly. Under the development agreement, those 92 public spaces stay tied to whatever the city charges. That keeps the private garage from pricing itself well above the city's own lots. The plan also includes about 16,000 square feet of permanent public access easements, a publicly accessible park, 10-foot sidewalks on three frontages, new crosswalks on Boardwalk Place and 129th Avenue East, and a resurfaced Boardwalk Place. The Times said the park will include an event stage. The sixth-floor restaurant and outdoor bar would be open to the public as well.
Not everyone welcomed the new traffic pattern. Sue Zirneskie, co-owner of Walt'z Fish Shak, told commissioners that customers have used East End Lane to reach the restaurant for 22 years. She said she doesn't oppose the hotel, only the change in access. The developer's attorney said widening Pelican Lane to two-way traffic was not feasible.
The schedule is still open. Karns said he hopes to start construction later this year and finish in 2028. The agreement gives the developer three years to submit a building permit application. As of early October, no permit filing, groundbreaking or closure date for the surface lot has been reported. For now, the lot stays as it is on ordinary weekends.
The hotel garage would add 92 public spaces. The city is looking at building more on its own. In spring 2026, commissioners chose the firm ADSQ to run a citywide feasibility study for a parking garage. ADSQ's quote was about $43,000, against up to $90,500 from Kimley-Horn. The study looks at three sites, mainly at John's Pass and at the north end near the recreation center. Its "go/no-go" design lets the city stop work on a site as soon as it proves unworkable.
One site has already run into a limit. State transportation officials confirmed that the John's Pass Bridge is a pre-stressed structure. Any garage on the south lot near the bridge can't have ground-floor shops, and vehicles can't drive directly under the bridge. Mayor Anne Marie Brooks said the city has "built for today without thinking about tomorrow" and that the commission needs to plan for the future.
No findings had been made public as of this writing. A city garage at John's Pass is still a possibility, not a project.
With the hotel garage years away and the city garage still under study, the most immediate change could come from Gulf Boulevard parcels that have been empty since Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
In July, Bay News 9 reported on an empty 18-space lot leased by a parking company, which split the revenue with its owner. After a complaint, the city said the lot violated code. Current zoning allows paid parking when it serves a business, such as a nearby restaurant, but not as a standalone use. Continuing to operate could bring fines of $250 a day. Jonathan Olejnik, owner of Corner Kitchen and Coffee on Gulf Boulevard, told the station that parking is "just getting more and more expensive and harder to find." His on-site lot is shared with a condo building.
Since then, the proposal has moved forward. Meeting summaries posted to Citizen Portal show that at the August 26 workshop, commissioners agreed on a temporary-lot ordinance that would expire at the end of 2029. The summaries list the sunset as both December 31 and December 30, 2029. They asked staff to return with implementation details and data from the pilot. No formal vote was recorded at the workshop. On September 14, the Planning Commission recommended approving Ordinance 2026-16 for up to three years on commercial property. The vote was six in favor with one recusal. Staff were asked to map the affected parcels and confirm drainage compliance. Those summaries are automated recaps, not official minutes. As of early October, no final vote by the City Commission has been found.
With the sunset in place, any lot approved under the ordinance would be allowed only through 2029. If the ordinance passes, the city's next parking additions may be small paid lots of a dozen or two spaces scattered along Gulf Boulevard.
Each piece has a specific next step, and most will be public:
Parking changes like these affect how Madeira Beach property owners use their land, what a Gulf Boulevard parcel is worth while it waits to be rebuilt, and what buyers should ask about access near John's Pass. If you own property near the Village or are weighing a purchase close to the hotel site, The Stuben Group can go over how these approvals may affect your plans. Work With Us.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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