CAPE MAY – Any visitor to Cape May is aware of the city’s parking issue. In January, the City Council assigned two of its advisory committees the task of ameliorating the problem.
The Municipal Parking Advisory Committee (MPAC) has been asked to develop a set of proposals to improve the parking situation in the historic town. The Municipal Taxation and Revenue Advisory Committee (MTRAC) was charged with developing ways to fund whatever improvements need to be implemented.
Council heard a report from MTRAC, July 18. Dennis Crowley, frequently the MTRAC spokesperson before the council, proposed a process that could earn an extra $500,000-plus annually to address the implementation of parking solutions.
Crowley began by arguing that the growing commercial sector in the city, including the commercialization of many residential properties as short-term rental locations, should bear the burden of necessary investments to strengthen their commercial enterprises. It should not, Crowley asserted, be passed onto property tax ratables.
Instead, he argued, the existing ordinance requirements governing the parking space responsibilities of commercial enterprises are not self-enforcing. He asserted that the ordinance-designated responsibilities have largely led to years of almost routinely granted variances for the parking requirements.
Crowley pointed to existing city code, which requires businesses and residences to provide a defined number of on-site parking spaces depending upon the size and nature of the property or business.
A major component of the city’s parking problem, Crowley said, is due to the fact that many residences and businesses fail to provide adequate on-site parking, forcing individuals to pursue parking elsewhere, including in the city’s streets.
There is no mechanism, Crowley added, for a business or residence to compensate the city for the annual impact resulting from the failure to provide the required on-site parking. No way, that is, until now.
What MTRAC proposes is an annual fee based on a business’s or residence’s required but unmet on-site parking. For some, the fee may change behavior and see more individuals provide the parking required rather than pay an annual amount to the city.
In most cases, where the on-site property offers no possible option for meeting the requirement, the city has a new revenue stream with which it can fund parking initiatives, including a possible garage. Any garage would require a subsidy given the seasonal nature of the city’s large tourist population.
One of the examples that Crowley used to illustrate the growing problem was the conversion of what were single-family homes into multiple short-term rental spaces.
Where the on-site spaces may have been adequate to meet the requirement of the single-family home, they fail, often miserably, to cover the spaces required by ordinance.
MTRAC did some math to show that based on the mercantile licenses, of which the city is aware, and the parking requirements based on those businesses, the parking spaces that should be provided total more than 7,000.
The presentation pointed to all that isn’t known, which suggests the size of the undocumented problem that plagues the city as residents and visitors endlessly seek a place to park.
In the end, Crowley calculated that in the summer season, Cape May probably needs as many as 12,500 parking spaces. Proposing ways to put a dent in that number is the task facing the MPAC.
Crowley pointed to roadblocks impeding the funding for solutions. MTRAC argues that the Parking Trust Fund as currently constructed is “useless” and needs revision in both scope and purpose. His argument continued with an assertion that the existing parking assessment fee is neither fair nor effective and should be repealed.
The MTRAC proposal is that the city creates an annual parking impact fee, clarify the ordinance establishing parking requirements, and dedicate a portion of the new annual revenue stream to a redefined parking trust.
The proposal seeks to bring clarity and structure to a jumble of regulations, funds, and ordinance requirements that were constructed separately at various times and without the benefit of any attempt at cohesion.
Crowley said MTRAC had done its work. A funding proposal was in place for the council to consider or modify. Now, the burden moves to the MPAC and its task of developing actions the city can take to at least reduce the incredible burden on parking.
Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
