TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. — Parking along Sunset Beach in Treasure Island comes at a bit more of a cost.

Starting Monday, the city announced that side street parking, which had been free, will now cost visitors $5 an hour.

The city says they’re doing this to encourage people to use their lots designed for the beach.

There’s a reason why locals in Pinellas County love coming to Sunset Beach. To Nichole Baker, it’s paradise.

“It’s just been a place that I’ve come my whole life, and it’s beautiful here, and it’s more laid back,” Baker, a Pinellas County resident, said. “There’s not bars and there are not a whole lot of tourists. So, it’s really just homey.”

Baker has been coming to Sunset Beach for decades. This place is home to her.

“I was born and raised here,” Baker said. “And you get to know everybody, and it becomes like a big family.”

So much so that she even works in the area.

But Monday morning, it’s a little different at Sunset Beach because now a sign warning visitors of parking on side streets now welcomes folks to West Gulf Boulevard.

According to the city of Treasure Island, they’re testing a program that requires folks to pay $5 an hour to park on the beach’s side streets.

Using the Park Mobile app, paying for parking on these streets is now enforced 24/7.

Officials say the rules exist for public safety, so first responders can access all the roads and so there is a lesser chance beach goers block residential driveways.

Residents with homes here can pay for two city parking passes for $45 a year.

But locals to Pinellas County, like Baker, who says she always would park on side streets Isn’t happy with the change.

“It’s already so difficult out here to live in Paradise,” Baker said. “We’re already paying so much. So, to try to go into our own backyard, to have a little bit of relaxation and have to pay such exorbitant prices, it’s defeating almost.”

Erinne Mickle lives in Pasadena but is staying at a friend’s place right now at Sunset Beach. She likes coming here to ride her bike and work out.

“If you just want to park your car, go for a walk or run on the beach, you got to pay for it,” she said.

While she says it’s a shame people have to pay for side street parking, she understands why homeowners might be happy with it.

“I think the residents like to have the parking available to them and driving through into their, you know, their driveways and not having all these cars smacked up against their driveway entrance,” Mickle said.

That’s how Baker feels, too. She gets how this is beneficial to folks with homes here but argues that’s sort of the price of paradise.

“It’s kind of like the seesaw effect of living on the beach, of living in Paradise,” Baker said. “You have to deal with the people that do make their way down here.”

When she’s not working her three different jobs, it costs her about $15 to park for four hours here at the beach, so while she plans to still come here, the frequency in which she visits her piece of heaven on earth, she says, will drastically change.

The city-owned lots at Sunset Beach will be lowered to $3.75 an hour to encourage people to park there instead.

Parking enforcement is now using license plate readers to see if people are paying for the spot they’re parked in.

If they aren’t, they could get a ticket with a $60 fine.