A neighborhood across the street from the Hard Rock is fighting back against people, who are parking in their community, trying to avoid paying a parking fee at the casino.
The parking fee is $10. It started August 1st. A casino representative said the money collected from the parking fee will be used to pay for security and to improve parking facilities.
According to the casino representative, he thought the parking issues in East Lake Park were getting better.
Jeri Barron with the East Lake Park Civic Association said it is actually getting worse.
"It's mainly on the entrances and if they can't park there, they'll move on into our neighborhood," Barron said.
Barron said people in the neighborhood are trying to block cars from parking in front of their homes. She said they have gotten approval to place traffic delineators to block people from pulling up onto sidewalks.
"It may help. We're hoping it does for the short term and then if it doesn't, then we'll address other issues further down the road," Barron said.
The casino representative said they learned a few employees parked in the neighborhood because they did not want to park in the designated off site employee parking lot. The official said they took care of that issue. They encourage people in the East Lake Park neighborhood to contact them about any other concerns they may have due to the parking problems.
Neighbors said they witness people regularly parking in the neighborhood who want to visit the Hard Rock.
"It's annoying when you have people coming out of there and urinating on the telephone pole, throwing the garbage on the ground that we the people in here have to pick up. That is a problem," Joanne O'Brien said.
The Hard Rock offers a few ways to validate your parking ticket to avoid paying the $10 fee. If you want more information, got to https://blog.seminolehardrocktampa.com/casinoblog/faq-parking-fees-validations/.
