SOMERS POINT — The experiment with paid parking at city-owned lots on Bay Avenue may soon be coming to an end.
Councilman Sean McGuigan made a motion during the Somers Point City Council meeting Aug. 18 to stop charging for parking, discontinue a contract for collections and repeal the ordinance that approved it. Councilman Howard Dill seconded the motion, and a straw poll to put the issue on the next agenda passed unanimously.
City Council passed an ordinance April 23, 2021, approving a contract with ParkMobile to operate the lots via its smartphone app.
According to the ordinance, the city saw an opportunity to earn revenue and determined the practice “would not be detrimental to the businesses, recreational uses or neighborhoods.”
City Council President Janice Johnston said at the time the city’s Parking Committee decided it could be “a great source of revenue,” adding it is a common practice in shore towns and the city was missing an opportunity.
Johnston had said there was no financial cost to the city and no obligation to continue past the one-year commitment.
The lots offer 113 parking spots and are located at Annie Avenue near the Clam Bar, across Bay Avenue from the Gateway Playhouse and across Higbee Avenue from the theater.
But McGuigan, who said he was against the idea from the beginning, said he has heard nothing but complaints since the program was enacted this spring.
“When I was against the initial effort, I said it’s anti-business, anti-community, anti-citizen and anti-visitor,” McGuigan said.
Complications with getting signage in place prevented the city from implementing the program in 2021, so City Council decided to wait until spring 2022 to begin charging for parking.
Dill said he has found that the revenue generated is much less than anticipated and the parking situation worse for neighborhood residents.
Dill was a member of the Parking Committee when it recommended the city enter into the contract but said he has changed his mind.
Noting that $150,000 represents about a penny on the tax rate, he said he felt the revenue would help keep taxes down.
“Initially I was in favor of it but I think that type of parking in which you need to utilize a phone, people are going to resist doing that,” he said.
Dill said the ParkMobile signs were put up in the wrong locations and had to be changed, which delayed enforcement this year.
“Now it’s August and we have not received much revenue,” Dill said, adding that it “didn’t come close” to the estimate of $150,000.
But Johnston said last week that the sample size is hardly adequate to gauge effectiveness.
“We have only June and July numbers, do not have August numbers,” she said. “I want to see what the August numbers are.”
Dill said he has gotten a lot of feedback from neighborhood residents and found most felt the paid lots made it more difficult to park on the street near their homes, since patrons of local restaurants take the free spots first.
He said further complication was caused by people operating the beach concert series telling patrons they didn’t have to pay.
“The whole thing never turned out to be what it was intended to be,” Dill said. “After evaluating and accepting feedback from citizens in the area, I think it’s time to go back to the way it was.”
McGuigan said “revenue always matters, but it was pretty clear that the revenue was not going to meet what the other members of council thought it would or planned on it doing.”
The program was initiated with little cost to the city — McGuigan said the lots already had been paved and striped.
“These were existing parking lots where there was no charge, and they were to stir economic development as well as provide convenience for citizens and visitors to the Bay Avenue district, including our wonderful municipal beach that we have,” he said.
Regardless of how City Council votes, parking will not be free until at least October. Even if an ordinance passed on first reading at the next meeting — scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8 — and approved following a public hearing Sept. 22, it still would have to be advertised and face a short enactment delay.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff