Valet Parking at Beach

Sea Isle City kicks around valet parking at the beach
By BRIAN IANIERIStaff Writer, (609) 463-6713
Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Press of Atlantic City
Updated: Wednesday, January 25, 2006

— A tourist pulls his sport utility vehicle within sight of the sand, unloads the kids and beach chairs and then hands his keys to a valet. Late afternoon, the suntanned family calls a valet service and has the vehicle delivered to where they are standing in their flip-flops.

This might be Sea Isle City in the not-too-distant future.

The city is looking for possible solutions to summer parking problems, and officials are considering ideas from beachside valet service to making a parking lot at the site of a former sewer plant — now known as a popular place for dogs to relieve themselves.

“We have to try lots of solutions. Some of them are going to work, and some of them are not going to work. But we've got to give it a good-faith try,” said city Zoning Board Solicitor Ellen Nicholson Byrne, a mother who sees the advantages of valet.

She suggested the city experiment with a pilot valet program this summer. Mayor Leonard Desiderio said he supports the idea.

Any July tourist knows parking spots on barrier islands are worth their weight in yellow gold.

Each summer, a small department within Sea Isle City Public Works — called “Lines and Signs”— works to whitewash curbs that others have illegally painted yellow, a clever but misguided attempt to preserve a few precious yards of street-front property.

Summer parking has become an increasingly important issue as Sea Isle City reworks its master plan, in part to make owning businesses more lucrative than cashing out and selling to housing developers. The city is also considering allowing more residential units above businesses.

A mayor's committee and the city planning and zoning board attorneys are recording ideas at public meetings, attended largely by business owners.

At the end of February, that committee will present the ideas to the City Commission, which can make the necessary laws or spend the necessary money to implement those changes.

Planning Board Attorney James Arsenault said the city could likely convert the site of the former sewer plant on 48th Street into a 300-space lot by summer.

He said it could become a paid, automated parking lot and provide shuttle service to downtown, which is about seven blocks away.

Byrne said the committee is still identifying city-owned properties that can be used for parking. At the committee's first meeting two weeks ago, several residents suggested moving basketball courts from downtown John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

Officials estimate that could yield 60 to 100 additional parking spots in a high-traffic area. But that idea was met with perhaps the most concern due to its effect on recreation in a vacation town.

It is also not likely for this summer.

Resident Mike Gardner suggested offering shuttle service to Sea Isle City from campgrounds in neighboring rural townships.

The city has another meeting scheduled at 2 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Public Safety Building.