BUSINESS DISTRICT PARKING REVIEW Ad-Hoc Committee August 20, 2018 MINUTES A meeting of the Business District Parking Review Ad-Hoc Committee was held on August 20, 2018 in Council Chamber in City Hall, in accordance with proper notification, with the following members present: Co-Chairs Mayor Ted Becker and Councilperson Bonnie Osler, Matt Disabatino, Darica Ward, Kathy Albert sitting for Jeff Ross, and Nancy Staisey. Ex-officio members present were: City Manager Ann Marie Townshend, Chief of Police Tom Spell and Code Enforcement Officer Steve Barrow. 1. Call to Order: Chairperson Becker called the meeting to order at 8:30am. 2. Approval of Minutes: There were no minutes available. 3. Discussion regarding parking concerns in the downtown residential areas. Mayor Becker stated parking in the residential areas around downtown is a major issue. Many residents are having issues finding parking, especially on weekends. They received an email from Catherine Dunning listing her concerns and expressing her support of a parking permit system. Nancy Staisey is the residential representative on the committee. Ms. Staisey reported over the past few weeks she has spoken with many local residents and has found the issues differ by street because the parking pressures are different on each street. For example, streets such as Market and Mulberry are sandwiched between the commercial district and the hospital. On some streets there are fewer parking space available. Trying to determine how many parking spaces are available on each street can be difficult as they are not delineated in most residential areas and each street has its own unique characteristics. She found on Mulberry and Market streets due to the parking pressures, there were many residents that would like a parking permit system. At the end of Third Street and Second Street, she heard less support for a permit system. On the other end of Savannah Road, she heard many comments about conversions to Airbnb or VRBO and the pressures for parking and the usage of cones and garbage cans to prevent parking. Mr. Becker opened the meeting to comments from the residents. Diana Reardon, 320 Market Street. Ms. Reardon stated she is an almost full-time resident in Lewes. Ms. Dunning s email addresses most of the concerns on Market Street. They love the visitors who shop and dine in Lewes, but they also tour the town to look at the historic homes. The historic district is as much a tourist attraction as the shops and restaurants and they are asking for the same level of consideration. She does not have the space on her property to put in a driveway and frequently does not find a place to park on her street. The problem is the downtown employees and owners parking for 8-hours. It is their public right to park there but it is unfair to the residents. Lewes is the only resort area that does not have some kind of permit parking system, something to protect the residents. She would like the city to have a pilot program to see how it would work in a specific area and if it doesn t work they could try something else. Georgia Tugend, 320 Mulberry Street. Ms. Tugend stated she agrees with everything in Ms. Dunning s email and what Ms. Reardon has stated. She has owned a home in downtown Lewes for 38 years. All her neighbors know they have to be accommodating to some extent but there are pressures from employee parking and tourism. In the area she lives on Mulberry Street they have seen an incredible flip from owner occupied and/or long-term rentals to weekly rentals. Many of the homes that were single family occupied advertise themselves as rentals for 8-12 adults, all with multiple vehicles and not one house has off-street parking. The visitors are an important part of Lewes, but the parking issues are only going to get worse. They would support a parking permit system. Wayne Ehler, 202 W. Third Street. Mr. Ehler stated he is a part time resident. Parking is a problem and has been a problem since they purchased their house. They have four parking spaces on Third Street and two on Market Street and during the summer they are filled with downtown employees or visitors. He would support trying a parking permit system. Page 1 of 5
Mayor Becker explained there was a short-lived parking permit system implemented about 25 years ago that only last about 3 days. The program was not well thought out or implemented and therefore, it was discontinued quickly. Roland Bradley, 304 Market Street. Mr. Bradley questioned why there can be 2-hour parking in front of city hall but not on Market Street. Ms. Osler questioned if time limit parking was implemented on these streets, would that be an adequate thing to try or should they go all the way. Mr. Bradley stated their issue is not about the visitors but is the workers that park for 8 hours. Mayor Becker questioned if they should delineate parking spaces on these streets. Mr. Bradley stated no, he feels that would eliminate parking spaces. Ms. Osler questioned if they want 2-hour parking signs installed and enforced as a first step. Residents would have parking permits, so they could park on the street. Ms. Staisey stated she has heard debates about 2-hours versus 3-hours and how many parking permits a residence would be issued. If the Airbnbs are issued as many permits as they want, then they are only addressing the employee parking issue. It was suggested having the option of purchasing parking permits with the cost rising with the number purchased. Barbara Bayer, 319 Market Street. Ms. Bayer is a part time resident and lives and works at Georgetown University and they have enormous parking issues. In her experience their parking system works well. She has an employee that comes between 8-9am, parks in the same spot by her house every day and leaves between 6-8pm. When she comes in from Washington DC, she parks somewhere else and when the vehicle leaves she moves her car to unload. The city needs to create a well thought out plan so what happened in the 90 s doesn t happen again. A three-hour parking limit would work in conjunction with several other things. They need to maximize street parking without metering. Chip Davis, 115 E. Third Street. Mr. Davis stated if they are looking at a small area for paid parking permits, workers probably aren t going to want to pay a high fee and will just move to the next street. Unless they do the whole town, the vehicles will just move to other streets. The downtown employees need places to park and they need to look at the options for visitors and employees. If there are free permits to homeowners, he would only issue them to residents; not to the Airbnb s that are bringing in 5 to 6 vehicles. They should have to pay for the permits. Ms. Osler agreed they don t want to move a problem from one area to another. Mayor Becker agreed they would need to do a large enough area, so the problem didn t just move to another area. Ms. Reardon agreed the workers are a vital part of the Lewes community. She questioned how Rehoboth Beach handles this issue. They have a massive work force, especially during the summer. Mayor Becker stated he and Ms. Townshend have spoken with Rehoboth to gather information. Ms. Reamer stated she works at the Chamber of Commerce and they have been dealing with this issue for 22 years. Every year they distribute a notice where they want the employees to park and talk to the business owners but it is voluntary. They have been trying to deal with this issue for a long time and it is clear that asking for voluntary compliance is not working. Ms. Staisey stated there are a lot of different opinions and they need to be careful to define a permit system and how it would work. There are many different ideas on how it could work. Ms. Osler has forwarded a list of questions to committee members to help them think through what a workable parking permit system might look like. How to price it, who gets what, what are the zones, what are the hours. They need to get feedback from the police and the parking enforcement officers. A parking permit system seems like the best idea but figuring out how that would work is another thing. Page 2 of 5
Mr. Disabatino agreed the permit idea is good, but it has to be well thought out. His family has a home in Key West FL and they have a parking permit system and it works very well. The employee parking situation in Lewes is difficult. He believes the only way to reposition these workers is if there are consequences for where they are parking. Until then, it is a voluntary action. Until they find a system that will take care of everyone s needs, the problem will continue. Ms. Ward stated she has done some research on parking issues. The good news is the problem they are trying to solve is the same in many towns and their solutions are all public and easily researched. Details vary but there are trends and it would be helpful to gather information. Ms. Staisey stated she has heard concerns from workers about those that close up at night, especially a woman, and feeling worried about parking in a distant location. It is a safety issue for them. Ms. Townshend distributed and reviewed information on Rehoboth Beach parking system and a copy of the brochure from Dewey Beach regarding their parking permit system. She feels Lewes is more like Rehoboth with residential areas that border the commercial areas but more separate than in Dewey Beach. In Rehoboth they have a separate person that oversees the residential parking from the visitor parking. Two transferable parking permits are issued, and a full-time resident would get two non-transferable permits for a total of four parking permits. If there is a rental license, additional permit can be purchased at $30 per bedroom per year. Licensed contractors and businesses get one free parking permit and can purchase additional permits. Visitors can purchase a seasonal transferable permit for $250 and non-transferable permit is $225. A weekly permit for eight consecutive days is $80. A three-day weekend is $45 and a one-day weekend permit is $20 and a one-day weekday permit is $15. In Dewey Beach there are no free parking permits. Residents get a discounted permit for the first two and then pay the full price. Parking Permits still have to pay at metered spaces. Ms. Townshend stated another issue in Rehoboth and Dewey is scooter parking. Lewes doesn t have as much but it is becoming more common. Many times, they are found parked at bike racks, which is not allowed. The other towns do not exempt them from a fee. Lewes allows two scooters in one parking space, but they have to pay the parking meter. If they don t they both get a ticket. Ms. Townshend explained the Beach Parking Committee is also reviewing the issue of parking permits in the beach residential area. Their issues are different in that the time parking is an issue is about eight weekends a year. Mr. Becker agreed they may be looking at two different kinds of parking zones, business districts versus beach district. There is a lot of nuances that would have to be worked through. Teresa Ford, owner of Kids Ketch on Second Street. Ms. Ford wanted them to be aware that if a permit system is implemented, once the meters come down the workers will be parking in the metered spots. That will need monitoring and enforcement. Mr. Becker agreed. All of this will come at a cost. Rehoboth has two full-time managers for their parking system. Ms. Albert stated she is a new employee of the parish. Fortunately, the church has some parking but it is a part of the residence on Mulberry Street. She questioned if the workers have some valid position also. Mr. Becker agreed, the committee needs to hear from them as well and the next meeting will be devoted to their concerns and interests. They need to consider all aspects of the parking situation. Ms. Osler questioned if Chief Spell and Parking Enforcement Supervisor Dennis Crawford had any comments on the enforcement side of this issue. Chief Spell stated there would be additional manpower and time needed to enforce any system put in place but is something that could be developed. Mr. Crawford stated it can be addressed as they discussed the parking meter upgrades. Page 3 of 5
4. Discussion regarding parking meters in the downtown commercial district: Possible meter replacement Possible expansion of metered areas City Manager Ann Marie Townshend, Financial Officer Ellen Lorraine McCabe & Parking Enforcement Supervisor Dennis Crawford have been working on this project. Ms. Townshend explained the city s station meters are approximately 10 years old and use a 3G modem. As of the end of 2019, Verizon will no longer support the 3G modems. At this point if a modem goes down the city will have meters out of service and with the amount of revenue gained from the parking meters, that is not a viable option. They have been looking into how to change out the meters before the 2019 summer season. The other issue is the single head meters in the downtown area which are very old, and we are not able to get the parts to fix them. The current single space meters do not accept credit cards which is another challenge. They have been talking to a number of vendors about a number of options. They are looking for feedback from the merchants on whether to replace most of the single head meters with station meters. Mr. Crawford explained they are looking at replacing the station meters in the beach and the downtown parking lots with newer meters that would pay by license plate instead of a paper display. Park by Plate will be identical to Park Mobile. The station meters will accept credit cards, coins and bills. They are looking at replacing some of the single head meters with a station meter, where practical. For example, on Market Street by Mary Vessels Park they could replace all the single head meters with one station meter. The two single head meters by Gilligan s would be replaced with new single head meters that also accepts credit cards. They will all feed into a central system which will allow the issuing and enforcement of permits. The system will allow for time limit parking, so they can determine 2- or 3-hour parking in different areas. Park Mobile will interface with the new system also. The stations will be solar powered, so the information will get sent to the main system and hand-held devices. Mayor Becker stated they should not make people cross a traffic lane to get to a meter. Ms. Townshend agreed, there will be locations where they will need to keep the single head meters, such as at Gilligan s, because of this. Also, there are some 30-minute meters that would remain as they wouldn t want to confuse people. Mr. Crawford agreed there will be the need for some single head meters, so they are looking at vendors that can supply both types of meters and tie into the same system. There was discussion on the placement of the station meters in the downtown area. Ms. Townshend explained that a driver will not have to go to a specific meter as the system will be Pay by Plate not pay by parking space number. There will need to be signage to let people know where they are located. They need to know from the merchants if there is any hesitation about going to the station meters instead of the single head meters. Ms. Ward stated it will be a huge benefit. They are always making change, so people can have quarters to feed the meters. Her only concern is most people do not have their license plate memorized. They will need good signage to let people know what is required. Mayor Becker explained there was a vote taken when Second Street was rehabilitated, and council voted to maintain the single head meters. Unlike Rehoboth, Lewes has narrow sidewalks and the placement of station meters will need to be considered carefully. Ms. Townshend stated they are relatively compact. Ms. Osler stated she feels the station meters will be a big improvement. Mayor Becker introduce the subject of expanding the meter areas. They could consider metering spaces from the Zwaanendael Museum up to the residential area along Kings Highway. Currently it is 2-hour parking and creates a lot of parking for downtown workers. Another thing for consideration is how many 30-minutes meters are needed. Currently 10% of the total meters is devoted to 30-minutes meters. They may want to look at each location and determined why they were designated 30-minute parking and if it is still viable. Ms. Osler stated another issue to consider is drop-off zones. How many do we need, are they in the right location and do they assist in dropping off passengers. Also, are there a sufficient number of handicapped parking spaces given the demographics of Lewes. Page 4 of 5
Ms. Staisey questioned the number of loading zones and do they have to be all day loading zones. Ms. Townshend explained the challenge is because they are loading zones, they are not metered. Mr. Becker distributed information received from a jitney service company called Cruz Car based in Sarasota Florida. They have a variety of smaller electric powered jitneys from 6 to 10 passengers. These vehicles are something like a golf cart but would have to be licensed for the road. Most of their client based is south of North Carolina. There are many other companies that supply a similar product. 5. Schedule next meeting: The next meeting was scheduled on September 12, 2018 at 8:30am. 6. Adjourn: The meeting adjourned at 9:40am. Minutes submitted by Alice Erickson Recording Secretary Page 5 of 5