Council denies request to make Third Street one-way or add slant parking
Smokin’ Joe’s is located on Third Street in Gainesville, just off the southwest corner of the square. Currently diners parallel park along both sides the street there to access the restaurant.
The city council voted unanimously to deny a request made by Joe Fortuna, owner of Smokin’ Joe’s BBQ, to make Third Street a one-way street or to put in slanted parking spaces near the restaurant, which reopened a couple weeks ago.
Fortuna also asked the council to help him find a place he can put a dumpster, as the restaurant’s property does not extend behind the building, and the parking lot owner has denied his request to place a dumpster there. The council members brainstormed some areas he could place a dumpster, but they didn’t feel it was their place to make requests to landowners on a business’s behalf. Instead, Councilwoman Lana Bushong said she’d talk with Fortuna and let him know some of the ideas they came up with in case he wanted to approach those businesses.