ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Chairs were set up in a large circle Thursday afternoon in a meeting room at St. Augustine’s City Hall. 

City leaders presented possible solutions they’ve created for improving traffic and parking during the next Nights of Lights. 

Business leaders sat in the chairs, listening and also giving their two cents about the holiday event. 

“I’ve been in tourism now for 15 years, and I’ve done every tour you can think of,” Aaron Jockers said. He is the co-owner of The St. Augustine Transfer Company which provides a variety of tours in downtown St. Augustine.

This past year’s Nights of Lights brought in an unprecedented amount of cars and people to the small town, clogging the streets, slowing response times for emergency responders, and blocking residents from leaving their neighborhoods.

Jockers noted he’d like to see more people working to manage the crowds. “You need people that are going to be there to watch traffic, to maintain bathrooms and little bit better, to maintain trash cans, lighting, things like that.”

He and other business leaders shared those concerns with St. Augustine city leaders.  Those city leaders have been working to iron out the major wrinkles in the twinkling light event.

City Manager David Birchim said, “The goal here to improve the quality of commerce for the businesses and to improve the quality of life for the residents during this event.”

This was is the fourth of 5 community meetings to present solutions and collect more ideas.

“We’ll consolidate all of  their feedback into our final report that we give to our city commission,” Birchim said.

Some ideas the city is considering include creating a shuttle-only lane on San Marco Avenue so shuttles don’t get stuck in traffic, creating residential-only parking spaces in neighborhoods so visitors won’t clog up neighborhood streets looking for a place to park, and placing officers at intersections to keep traffic moving smoothly.

As for Jockers, he said these plans aren’t just good for Nights of Lights but for a growing county and city.

“Everyone’s got to really decide what kind of Saint Augustine, what kind of Saint Johns County we want going forward. So it’s very important that we all work together,” he said. 

The next community meeting is scheduled for all residential and business stakeholders on Tuesday, June 10, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., for anyone who is unable to attend the May daytime meetings. The meeting will be held in a town hall format in The Alcazar Room of City Hall, located at 75 King Street.