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A parking plan that drew protest from the Rehoboth Beach business community has been discarded in favor of a compromise plan.
The Rehoboth commissioners have decided not to extend the parking season until the end of September. They also decided not to raise parking meter rates to $2 an hour.
At a Monday, March 17 budget meeting, the commissioners came up with a compromise solution that would provide the same revenue but lower proposed parking rate increases.
The new plan calls for all meters along Rehoboth Avenue and all metered ocean blocks to be raised to $1.50 per hour, while meters on the second block of side streets would be raised to $1.25 an hour. The rest will remain at $1 per hour. Fifty-one meters along Rehoboth Avenue will be retrofitted to accept credit cards.
Revenues from the new meters will go into a capital improvements and parking project pool, which will help fund additional parking studies and other capital improvements such as the Boardwalk, wastewater disposal and a city municipal complex. The parking permit and meter season will continue to end after Labor Day.
With the new rates the commissioners did not vote on the ordinance to increase the parking meters rates, but the budget for 2008-09 was passed because the budget would remain the same.
Commissioner Stan Mills said of the new rates, “I think it’s a good compromise. Frankly I think these projects before us are necessities, the Boardwalk being a place I look at as being a necessity, not discretionary. I look at replacing the police station and city offices as necessities, not optional. I think it’s a good plan for looking at our capital improvement projects in the future.”
Commissioner Paul Kuhns said, “I feel this is a good compromise from suggestions that Main Street had and the chamber had. We got a lot of letters, a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls and we listened. There are things we need to accomplish over the next few years and this is kind of a start.”
Commissioner Dennis Barbour opposed any increase in parking rates. Barbour said he thought the city was going about things backward: officials should first identify what they need to raise money for before going out and raising revenue. Despite the compromise, he said that even the compromise rate is too high and that visitors would have the perception it is expensive to park in Rehoboth. Finally, Barbour said in light of the uncertainty surrounding the American economy, it is not a good decision to raise rates.
Mayor Sam Cooper said he wasn’t necessarily in favor of the new compromise but the support from both Main Street and the Rehoboth-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce led him to accept it. Cooper said he thought it was ill-advised to try to raise the rates to $2 an hour.
Most in the audience were glad the commissioners listened to the concerns of citizens and decided against extending the season.
Greg Oliver of Baltimore Avenue said, “I want to commend you on your hard work on this budget and your responsiveness on the parking fee issue.”
Oliver urged the commissioners to begin examining revenue sources, such as taxes and rental fees, and then provide the citizens with a snapshot of what they need to do to fulfill the city’s capital improvement needs.
Hoyte Decker of Laurel Street commended both the citizens for being proactive in the parking issue and the commissioners for listening. He then urged citizens to continue to come out to meetings and making their voices heard. When a few members of the audience said they may not come to Rehoboth because of the parking rates, Main Street executive director Fay Jacobs said, “When I hear people say, ‘Well, we’re just going to go out on the highway,’ I want to say to them, ‘Use it or lose it.’ If you love your hometown and you want this to be here for you, you come in here and support everything that is here. Nothing is free. We’re trying to build a combination of a thriving resort and a hometown.”
The commissioners will likely vote on the new parking meter rates at its Monday, April 21 meeting.
Contact Ryan Mavity at ryanm@capegazette.com
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