ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Preparations are underway as the final touches are being put on St. Augustine’s 2025 Nights of Lights event, set to kick off with Saturday night’s light-up ceremony.
“We’ve been working in earnest since last Nights of Lights to develop a more thorough plan to address crowd management, traffic congestion, and strike that balance between our business’s needs and our residents’ needs,” Assistant City Manager Reuben Franklin told Action News Jax Wednesday morning.
However, there are many changes to expect with this year’s event.
One of the incoming changes to the 2025 edition of the event is St. Augustine eliminating street parking in the city’s downtown plaza, in an effort to improve pedestrian safety and encourage the use of city shuttles to alleviate traffic concerns.
“For these big events, we’re really encouraging to use the satellite parking and shuttle into town,” Franklin added. “And that’s a big component into the future ... for Nights of Lights and managing the event.”
Franklin also said the shuttles will be significantly expanded this year, to run on both Fridays and Sundays, unlike just Saturdays like in previous years.
“You’re gonna find that we’re shuttled in a lot more days,” Franklin explained. “I believe it’s 35 days this year, which was a change from just 12 days last year.”
St. Augustine leaders will also be expanding their resident-only street parking permits during the event to now include the Flagler Model Land Company, Abbott Tract, and Uptown neighborhood areas.
“A lot of times our residents take the burden with the overflow of traffic and parking,” Franklin said. “We’re really trying to push our visitors once that parking garage fills up to use the shuttle system.”
Parking enforcement staff will be monitoring downtown residential neighborhoods and will issue $100 citations for illegal parking.
City of St. Augustine officials are also recommending visitors download the Nights of Lights mobile app, which will include all the “know before you go” information needed.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
