MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Manatee County commissioners have put the brakes on the design and negotiations of three parking garages.

One commissioner estimated the project would have cost taxpayers $3 million. The decision comes after a year of back-and-forth debate.

It all started when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation authorizing the county to build parking facilities at Holmes Beach.

Morgan Bryant, who has lived in the city of Holmes Beach since 2015, has owned Cool Beans A.M.I for three years. In May 2023, Bryant started a petition to stop the building of a parking garage on the lot of Bradenton Public Beach.

“I’m so excited,” she said of the county commission's decision.

She also started peaceful protests, hoping to stop the process.

“It seems so surreal because we felt so defeated at that point,” she said.

She is referring to the thousands of residents who signed the petition she started last year. They opposed legislation passed by both the House and Senate authorizing the county to build a parking garage on the Manatee Public Beach parking lot.

“We did this, the whole petition, and it caught on so fast. Everybody just got on board so quickly, and I didn’t think my little petition was going to go anywhere. But it just shows you the voice of the people,” she said.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Manatee County commissioners unanimously voted to halt the process.

“We got this bucket of taxpayer dollars to potentially design parking garages," commissioner George Kruse said. "And I don’t like spending money on design for things we’re not going to build. We still technically have the bill out there. I talked to somebody from our Tallahassee delegation yesterday. That bill doesn’t go away.”

Kruse also clarified they can’t stop a state bill, which is what the parking garage is, but they can halt negotiations and design

The parking garage would have filled the lot with hundreds of new spaces and, according to city officials, would have put some people out of business. Bryant says that was one of her concerns.

“Concerns about business, about life here — you know, owning a business out here. People come here and they go, ‘This place is amazing. There’s just something about it.’ And you’re going to drive onto an island and see a parking garage, and that’s going to take away all the charm,” she said.

While the decision might be temporary, Bryant hopes her city will stay the way it is, with no parking garage.

Holmes Beach city officials say there are 100 parking spaces available at any given time. Kruse says they have no power to stop the new law and welcomes any future board members to take a look.