Cape May Seeks to Create More Metered Parking Spaces

CAPE MAY – The city is considering creating a number of new parking spaces by reconfiguring parking on Beach Avenue from parallel spaces to back in angle parking and installing meters on spaces that were formally unmetered in portions of the city.
Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. and Councilman David Kurkowski both acknowledged the city needs new sources of revenues at a special city budget meeting Jan. 15.
Public Works Superintendent Robert Smith said back in angle parking was being used in Sea Isle City and Philadelphia. He said the spaces could be installed on streets that are at least 46 feet wide, keeping two 11 foot wide travel lanes and keeping parallel parking on the opposite side of the street.
Smith said it was quicker and easier for drivers to get into a back in angle space. On Beach Avenue, cars would be parked with the front of the car facing the traffic making it safer when cars pulled out of their spaces.
Replacing parallel parking spaces with back in angle spaces could double the amount of parking spaces on a street, said Smith. He said Beach Avenue varied in width from one end to the other.
Smith said back in angle parking could be installed on Beach Avenue from Broadway to Grant Street and Decatur Street to Gurney Street and east to Howard Street once a new convention hall is constructed.
He said back in angle parking could also be installed on Gurney Street which would double the amount of parking spaces. He also suggested the new type of parking spaces on Beach Avenue from Madison Avenue to Wilmington Avenue, again doubling the amount of spaces.
City Manager Bruce MacLeod said 45 new spaces could be created on Beach Avenue from Broadway to Grant Street, 20 new spaces from Decatur Street to Gurney Street, 105 spaces from Madison Avenue to Pittsburgh Avenue and 150 spaces from Pittsburgh to Wilmington avenues. He said 14 new spaces could be created on Gurney Street.
MacLeod said the city could gain $150,000 in additional revenue from metering the new parking spaces.
“Just as important was almost 330 additional parking spaces along the beachfront by changing to this type of methodology,” he said.
Smith said the city had 380 meter housings in storage along with 600 internal mechanisms so purchasing additional parking meters would not be necessary.
MacLeod said more parking meters could be installed in four or five areas of the city, in particular, the area where Gurney Street, Stockton Place, Howard Street intersect with Columbia Avenue. He projected 164 meters could be installed that could produce $100,000 annual revenue for the city.
MacLeod said 10 parking meters could be installed on Madison Avenue from Beach Avenue to New Jersey Avenue producing $5,000 in additional revenue. He said in existing parking meter zones, there were random spots where meters were not installed, a total of 10 to 20 spaces.
Some loading zone spaces in the city are in operation only from 6 a.m. to noon but become metered spaces from noon until 10 p.m. MacLeod said some all day loading zones could be revisited with loading zone use restricted only to mornings.
He said 16 to 20 new spaces could be created at the city’s Transportation Center using 30 minute parking until 5 p.m. and metered parking after that hour.