Cape May to Get More Parking Spaces, More Meters

CAPE MAY – The city will get more than 300 new parking spaces by using back in angle parking on Beach Avenue and install parking meters in the east side of town where parking has been free of charge.
East Cape May homeowners filled City Hall auditorium March 16 stretching a City Council meeting to three and half hours in length. The homeowners urged council to table two of three parking ordinances.
Council voted 3-1 to approve three ordinances to make the parking changes with Councilman David Kurkowski cast the lone dissenting vote. He said he wasn’t convinced installing more meters was a good way to raise revenue.
Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. acknowledged the city needs new sources of revenue, particularly in a time when state aid is being cut. The additional meters will provide the city nearly $150,000 in additional yearly revenue.
The city will not have to purchase new meters, it has 380 housings and 600 internal mechanisms in storage.
Deputy Mayor Niels Favre said the city did not have the funding to buy high tech parking meter stations for East Cape May.
Councilwoman Terri Swain said residents threatened to boycott her hardware store if she “didn’t vote a certain way tonight.” She said her vote had nothing to do with her business.
A number of East Cape May homeowners banded together and hired attorney Sanford Schmidt of Medford to oppose metered spaces in a part of Cape May dominated by million dollar historic homes and “McMansions,” built on the site of the former Christian Admiral Hotel. The meeting turned into a replication of a planning board meeting with Schmidt presenting expert witnesses.
Historic Preservationist Joan Berkey suggested meters in the east end of town could endanger the city’s historic landmark status and ruin a vista that hasn’t changed much since the early 1900s.
Richard Zeghibe, who owns a number of commercial parking lots in Philadelphia and a home in Cape May, suggested increasing the price of prime parking spaces near the beach as an alternative to meters in the east side of town. He suggested more attended parking lots such as the one at the Cape May Acme, particularly at night to increase city revenue.
Zeghibe also suggested the city undertake a comprehensive parking study.
Schmidt noted East Cape May homeowners paid high taxes and meters in front of their houses could lower their property value. He argued parking meters were for commercial districts not residential zones like East Cape May.
A number of homeowners complained they would not be able to park their cars in front of their homes because beachgoers would come farther back from the beach seeking free parking. Others complained they would have to feed a meter to park in front of their home, the visual landscape of their neighborhood would be ruined by meters and tourism would be damaged.
Kathy Wilkenson, speaking on behalf of the Cottager’s Association, said she no other R-1 zone in Cape May had parking meters. She said metering and increasing the number of spaces would increase traffic and congestion and generate adverse publicity for the city.
New Jersey Avenue resident Brian DiDonato suggested raising beach tags fees rather than installing meters.
Mahaney said Schmidt had the right to pursue the meter issues in court but the city’s taxpayers would pay for litigation costs.
Ordinance 199 created short-term, 15 minute parking. The ordinance changes a few spaces currently designated as loading zones reducing loading hours from 6 a.m. to noon with the rest of the day available for full service parking. Twenty metered parking spaces will be created at the Welcome Center. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the spaces will be available for 30 minute non-metered parking and metered parking from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Ordinance 200 established metered zones throughout Cape May. On both sides of Beach Avenue from Third Avenue to Wilmington Avenue and both sides of Wilmington Avenue from Beach Avenue to New Jersey Avenue, meters will operating from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. from May 1 to Oct. 31.
Four additional parking areas will be created: both sides of Madison Avenue from Beach Avenue to New Jersey Avenue, both sides of Pittsburgh Avenue from Beach Avenue to New Jersey Avenue, both sides of Baltimore Avenue from Beach Avenue to New Jersey and both sides of Brooklyn Avenue from Beach Avenue to New Jersey with meters operating from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from June 1 to September 15.
Ordinance 201 covered the creation of back-in angle parking on Beach Avenue on the ocean side from Third Avenue to Grant Street, between Decatur and Howard streets, between Madison and Wilmington avenues and on the east side of Gurney Street.