Downtown Howard Avenue parking changes prompt complaints from small businesses

Several downtown Biloxi business owners told the council they lost valuable curbside parking after the city reconfigured parking on Howard Avenue, and they asked the administration to revisit the striping or provide mitigation.

The Avenue Salon’s representative, who identified herself as Anderson, said the loss of roughly 10 nearby parking spaces has reduced convenience for clients — many of them elderly or with limited mobility — and could cost customers. “Those 10 parking spots that were removed were already limited to us,” she said, asking the council to expedite a solution.

A volunteer who collected parking measurements for business owners cited Mississippi Department of Transportation lane‑width guidance and questioned why the city repainted crosshatched zones without a traffic engineering study being shared publicly. “Based on the MDOT roadway design manual… we have 25 ft [between parking spaces] … the city hasn't produced any traffic studies or engineering work to determine the underlying cause,” the speaker said.

City staff and council members said downtown merchants and a merchants’ meeting were given chances to comment; staff said the changes were requested by merchants and intended to improve two‑way traffic and make customer access more visible. Councilmembers asked administration to provide maps and the date(s) when the plan was presented and to continue outreach to affected businesses.

Next steps: staff will provide meeting documentation and the striping plan to council and follow up with merchants on potential mitigations such as timed parking, signage or metering.