Things are heating up at the Vero Beach Airport – literally – as crowds of passengers wait in the Florida sun to board more than 400 flights leaving the airport this month, now that two additional commercial carriers have joined Breeze Airlines in offering service into and out of Vero Beach.

Commercial air traffic has exploded at the airport because flights from Vero to destinations in the Northeast have proved wildly popular with island snowbirds, but the added air traffic creates a matching demand for airport parking – which is in short supply.

City Council members took a step toward improving the situation when they voted last week to lease airport property to a private parking lot developer, instead of constructing and operating paid parking lots themselves.

Breeze Airlines, which began offering service to Vero Beach in February 2023, added Raleigh, N.C., last year for a total of eight destinations, and increased its service this month to 220 flights. JetBlue joined the lineup last December and has 124 flights completed or scheduled in March. American Airlines became the small airport’s third carrier last month, offering 62 flights in March.

Rapid growth has airport personnel scrambling to keep up on multiple fronts and the three free parking lots filled to capacity on most days. Complicating matters, as Vero Beach 32963 reported last fall, some people aren’t abiding by the “honor system” three-hour parking limit at the short-term parking lot adjacent to the terminal.

Faced with sudden congestion, city council members have been poring over plans to create paid parking at the airport. On March 10, the council voted to lease out all the parking areas to a private developer and operator. The vote was 4-1, with Council Member John Carroll voting no.

The plan is to create up to 500 paid parking spaces, with the operator leasing the site and paying the city 25 percent of parking revenues. The project includes 100 unpaid parking spaces for people working at the airport and 30 spaces reserved for those waiting to pick up passengers on incoming flights.

Revenues to the city could potentially be around $422,000 per year, according to Brandon Dambeck, operations manager for the airport. That estimate includes the lease amount of approximately $100,000 along with the city’s share of parking fees, assuming the lots will be 70 percent full on average, with customers paying an average of $10 per day to park, he said.

An operator would have to spend approximately $1.46 million to construct the paid lots. Construction of the employee and short-term waiting lots would be covered by a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation.

The city would design the project, Dambeck said, and lease payments would be waived during the six-month construction period, while the leaseholder builds the lots, he said.

The operator would be responsible for security, insurance, upkeep and maintenance of the lots, Dambeck said.

“This approach creates a single cohesive parking system with improved traffic flow and better lighting and walkways,” Dambeck said.

Leasing the property to a private developer and operator would require no additional airport staffing and save time that would otherwise be required for a legally mandated competitive bidding process if the city built the lots, Dambeck said.

Councilman Carroll, however, questioned the wisdom of turning over the parking operations to a private entity and forfeiting the opportunity to keep all the revenue for the airport. “That’s a lot of money to give away,” Carroll said. “That’s bothersome to me. Parking is a cash cow. Every businessman knows that.”

Gary Goldberg, president of Diversified Aviation and a principal owner of Diversified Real Estate Development of Deerfield Beach, asked the council to consider pausing the project to consider additional options. Goldberg oversaw the $14 million construction of two new hangars at the airport and is building a $34 million hotel nearby, he said.

“I believe this calls for a more holistic approach to include possible upgrades to the terminal,” Goldberg said, adding that he had made an unsolicited proposal for an option that would keep parking operations in the city’s hands, but that no one had responded to him about it.

“I ask you to step back and look at it,” he said.

Former county commissioner and businessman Tim Zorc agreed and said the council should also address the fact that the terminal doesn’t have enough room for all the people awaiting flights, who instead have to wait outside for their planes to board. “It’s a complicated process, but if you don’t address some of these things you may regret it,” Zorc said.

Steve Kovaleski of Envision Parking Partners VC, LLC, said his company would bid to become the parking lessee and arrange funding for construction and operation. But when Carroll pressed him, Kovaleski admitted that his LLC had only recently been formed and that he had no prior experience running a paid parking operation.

Kovaleski said he has partnered with SafeParc, a parking management company based in Florida and Ohio. His proposal is for an automated parking lot with no attendants. Customers’ license plates would be read by cameras, and they could either get a bill by mail or pay at an onsite kiosk with an app or credit card.

“We don’t want to operate a parking lot,” said Mayor John Cotugno. “But we also don’t want to leave money on the table. The council will have to offer its input when evaluating those who are interested in leasing the property.”

Councilman Aaron Vos said he was opposed to the city taking on all the risk of building the lots only to see airlines cease operation in Vero Beach, reducing the demand for parking.

In other airport news, the city Planning and Zoning Board approved site plans for a 2,800-square-foot rental car building on six acres at 2590 Airport North Dr., near the airport terminal.

Besides the main building, there will be 2,296 square feet of detail bays, parking space, and a vacuum and fueling area on the site.

Site developer Coppola Partners LLC declined to provide any further details.

When the rental facility is completed, the project will free up 30 spaces in the airport’s short-term parking lot along with space inside the terminal now occupied by Avis Rent a Car and Budget Car Rental.