PETERSBURG – Cape May County Engineer Robert Church presented further information to Upper Township Committee at the Oct. 22 meeting about parking options for the county’s proposed re-striping of Commonwealth Avenue.
The oceanfront road links Strathmere in Upper Township to Sea Isle City. The committee was considering again a request from the county for a letter of support for the restriping project that is designed to improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists along the busy thoroughfare.
At an earlier committee meeting, members had tabled the county request for the support letter as it was concerned that losing shoulder areas along the beach side of the road would result in a massive loss of parking.
Church said the county was ready with options that would replace parking spaces and showed one diagram that indicated along Commonwealth parking for 220 vehicles at different areas.
“We were originally hoping to get this done this fall, but we’re now thinking we’ll have this ready by spring. We have preliminary plans, and we’re focused on improving safety along this road. I’d like to apologize that parking concerns were not initially addressed. The county is now ready to move forward with the engineering and permitting,” he continued.
Mayor Richard Palombo replied, “We’re very happy now with what you’re showing us. I had an opportunity to speak to several freeholders and let them know we were concerned with the parking part of the package. What we’re seeing now is light years from what we were discussing last month.”
Church mentioned that the current paint-chip lot, which monitors the effects of the sun, is slated to eventually be removed. That would add 50 parking spots.
“Eventually we want to construct a nice parking facility, not just a lot. The facility would include benches and a washroom. We will be discussing finalization of the plan as well with Sea Isle City, start the permitting process and then Mother Nature willing; we will have the restriping ready for the new summer season next year,” Church continued.
With the new input, committee unanimously passed the resolution to approve the letter of support that had been requested by the county.
“There are no fatal flaws to this plan now and parking, safety, and congestion seem to all have been addressed,” concluded Palombo.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.
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