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Rehoboth parking committee looks for road forward

Permits, employee parking are major issues
August 2, 2019

Summer may not be over, but the Rehoboth Beach Parking Committee is looking forward to next year. 

The committee’s goal is to reduce the number of cars in Rehoboth and provide more parking spots without building more parking. 

To that end, the committee made a series of recommendations to the city commissioners earlier this year, but many were not adopted. At a July 22 meeting, Committee Chair Linda Kauffman said those recommendations will again be forwarded to the commissioners, but she wanted to get the public’s input for new suggestions. 

Among the committee’s recommendations last year was extending permit hours to 10 p.m. to match parking meters and reduce parking on unmetered streets, a popular topic of discussion at the July 22 meeting. 

Committee member Mark Saunders said the proliferation of large houses designed for the rental market has caused a flood of cars on the streets.

“Everyone wants to drive their own car,” he said. “Carpooling is a sin anymore. You can’t come with your spouse because you may have to talk to them or something. A typical five-or-six- bedroom house may have seven or eight cars. That’s two in the driveway, two in the front and four in front of somebody else’s house.”

Kauffman said she has seen people who park their cars in Rehoboth to go to their rental house in Dewey Beach.

Bob West, 312 Stockley St., said he favored extending the permit season because it makes the parking regulations in the city uniform and easy to understand. He said he also favored increasing the permit costs for hotels and rentals. 

Susan Gay, 316 Country Club Dr., said she was concerned about hotels, especially because the city has two or three new hotels planned. City regulations require one on-site space per room. 
‘I don’t know what the solution is, but I feel like that’s going to get worse,” she said. 

Kauffman said regulations may need to be changed to require two spaces per room or other new regulations.

“There’s only a finite amount of spaces on the curb,” she said.

Parking in neighborhoods by employees working in downtown businesses also drew discussion. 

Kauffman said the business community generally does not want an extended permit season because employees would have to pay to park.

She said a shuttle has been discussed, but human nature dictates people will take the easiest, cheapest way to get into town. Kauffman said the city may need to incentivize employees to park outside town.

“The main question is, whose responsibility is that? Is it the city? Is it the business? Is it the employee? What I was hearing from the businesses was the city needs to solve the problem,” Kauffman said. 

Karen Zakarian of the Boardwalk Plaza Hotel said the hotel has lost staff because the cost of parking is too high. She said the city needs to make parking more affordable and available for those who use it. 

One recommendation the city has adopted was raising parking meter costs on the beach blocks from $2 to $3 per hour. 

Carol Everhart, president and CEO of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, said she gets more complaints about the three-hour time limit than the rates.

She said the city needs to simplify parking for visitors so it is easier to understand. Everhart said Parkmobile is particularly difficult for people who don’t have the app downloaded before they get to Rehoboth. Zakarian said the hotel asks guests to download Parkmobile before they get to Rehoboth.

Finally, the committee will continue to recommend increasing the costs of parking permits over time, as well as raising the price of additional permits for rentals and hotels to $250 per permit. 

“The biggest source of revenue for the city is its parking,” Kauffman said. “I call that a user fee. People pay to park to come to Rehoboth. That money is used for clean streets and security and nice beaches.”

The committee will meet again at 9 a.m., Monday, Aug. 26, at City Hall. 

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