Cape May Creates Parking Advisory Committee

CAPE MAY – It’s that time of year when governing bodies across the county are making last-minute preparations for the start of the summer season. Yet, visions of sunny days and flocks of visitors are constrained by the perennial concern over what to do with all the cars. 
Cape May has wrestled with the problem over several years, with one of the latest examples being a previous committee on seating and outdoor dining, which had parking added to its agenda. Even more recently, a local businessman prepared conceptual plans for a parking garage on the site of the Washington Commons Shopping Center, igniting opposition at a Planning Board meeting.
On May 15, Cape May City Council created a new advisory committee to review traffic flow and parking issues.
The resolution creating the committee passed on a 3-2 vote, as council members Bea Pessagno and Roger Furlin objected to being “left out” of the selection process for committee members.
Resident Jules Rauch also raised concerns during the public comment period. Rauch had been a member of an earlier committee that made recommendations to the previous council on parking. Those recommendations included a fee charged to food establishments that operated more seats than their mercantile license allowed. 
The idea of a fee for seats feeding a parking fund was criticized at the time by business owners who felt the parking problems in the city were disproportionally being placed at their feet. The committee’s recommendations were never implemented by the current council.
Parking Advisory Committee
The new committee created May 15 is charged with a comprehensive review of all available parking and traffic studies, including the city’s Master Plan, in order to better understand long-standing issues and trends.
Reporting to both the city manager and council, the committee is to assist city officials by recommending potential solutions that are sensitive to the “distinct parking concerns of year-round and seasonal homeowners, beach-goers, hotel owners and staff, innkeepers and staff, restaurant-owners and staff, mall and other area business operators and staff, bicyclists, delivery and lawn services, and public safety interests.” This represents a long laundry list of potentially conflicting needs.
The committee, to be chaired by Robert Lamendola, was also asked to mesh its “parking-related plans” with the current Master Plan and the “evolving Master Plan Reexamination.”
Parking Limits Evolving Plans
Over a number of council meetings, one theme persists as a caution on city development plans: where will the cars go?
Resident Christine Miller asked the question once again in the context of a discussion of a possible library branch in the Franklin Street School along with an ongoing study of a new public safety building on land adjacent to the school. The plans call for more activity in that area of the city and they also use space in ways that may reduce the available parking.
Deputy Mayor Shaine Meier made clear the intention to add parking spaces at the Lafayette Street Park, while the full extent of the available parking at the park remains unclear. Yet, enhancements to the park itself will draw more users of the facility and presumably absorb much of the new parking created.
Calls for parking lots have included expanded areas behind the Welcome Center, available spaces on Pittsburgh Avenue with shuttle service, alteration of regulations regarding street parking, and even off-island parking.
Efforts have also been underway to make the city friendlier to bicyclists and pedestrians as a way of not only adding amenities but also reducing reliance on the automobiles.
Earlier recommendations concerning the proposed fee added to the cost of a mercantile license represented an attempt to fund any possible solution to the parking problems. The newly formed committee has not been charged with suggesting funding mechanisms, but funding will be an issue regardless of what recommendations the committee puts forward.
The committee has been charged with understanding “the comparative advantages and disadvantages of parking garage construction and additional surface parking lots,” which potentially puts it in the midst of the recent controversy over a garage at Washington Commons.
There are many challenges awaiting any committee charged with suggesting “solutions” to the city’s parking dilemma.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.