Fenwick Island Officials discuss parking

Credit to: Coastal Point, Kerin Magill

Parking in Fenwick Island — particularly for employees of businesses in the town — was the focus of a presentation by Mayor Natalie Magdeburger at the Friday, April 5, Fenwick Island Town Council meeting.

Magdeburger’s report was part of an ongoing effort to solve summer parking issues — particularly for numerous restaurants during the busy dinner hours.

The Town’s Business Concerns Committee had asked the council to consider selling half-price parking passes to businesses for their employees to use between 4 and 10 p.m. in permit-parking areas of town.

Following discussion at previous council meetings and Business Concerns Committee meetings, Magdeburger said she had done an informal survey of town streets in search of spots that could be used by businesses.

She said she looked at a number of areas and found about 20 spots that are not marked as permit parking spots.

“We’ve never had parking on north-south streets,” she said. “All of our parking has been on east-west streets. There are streets in town that don’t have parking that are close by some of the businesses.”

The streets she identified as potentially having usable parking spaces included Bora Bora Street (near Pottery Place), Dagsboro Street, Wright Street and McWilliam Street.

The issue with most of those locations, however, is that they are several blocks from the businesses that need them the most. Also, residents in those areas might not be happy about cars parked on their streets and employees walking to them late at night — particularly when they might want to use those spaces themselves.

Council Secretary Jacqueline Napolitano said she is familiar with Bora Bora, in particular, and “If I lived there, I wouldn’t like people coming there at that hour, turning on your headlights, turning your car around to head back out. It’s disturbing to the residents,” she said.

Magdeburger identified the new Surf Bagel location as one place that “is already having some parking issues” in the off-season and said those issues will likely increase as the town becomes more crowded in the summer.

“We need more parking,” Magdeburger said.

Napolitano said she would rather see the businesses in town pursue the idea of sharing parking areas between them — for example, one business that is open during the day allowing another business that is busiest at night to use their parking lot.

“It could work,” Napolitano said.

The idea has been floated before, but little progress was made toward implementing such a plan.

Council Member Colleen Wilson agreed that the “business-to-business” concept should be pursued.

“I like the idea of supporting businesses,” Wilson said, “but I’d like to spur the businesses on with the idea of sharing” parking areas.

“We definitely want to help them,” Napolitano agreed.

She suggested looking into use of the Bank of Ocean City lot or the Surf Bagel lot during the evening, when both are closed.

“There are so many variables,” she said.

“We have limitations on our parking availability,” Council Treasurer Bill Rymer said. “The businesses fought the ordinance we tried to put into place to require more parking on business properties. And I understand why they did it, and that’s their right,” Rymer said. “The ordinance passed, and we’re receiving requests for the Town and property owners to make changes to allow business parking along streets where it hasn’t been before.

“I think the business community should be working with each other, first, to open up those lots,” Rymer said, adding that he understands that two of the biggest issues are waivers and “excessive wear and tear” on the parking lots.

If the Town allows parking on streets where it has never existed before, “the Town will have to deal with excessive wear and tear” on those streets, he said. “These folks are going to be parking somewhere anyway.”

The cost to maintain town streets is increasing “significantly,” Rymer said. “We need to generate more revenue.”

Toward that end, the Budget & Finance Committee, which he chairs, is considering raising hourly parking rates from $3 to $4 per hour.

Of the idea for half-price parking passes for spots in residential areas, Rymer said, “I don’t think I want to be doing this until the business community has figured out how to work with each other. That’s where all the spots are.”

Scott Mumford, former owner of Warren’s Station restaurant, said the council’s decision to change the time limit for parking on side streets to 10 p.m. forced businesses to have to get permits for their employees. He said he favors the idea of using side streets that currently don’t have parking spaces — particularly those that are not overly busy.

The council ultimately decided to send the issue back to the Business Concerns Committee for further review.