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By Donald Wittkowski

The threat of Tropical Storm Hermine slamming into the Jersey Shore over the Labor Day weekend sent many residents in Sea Isle City scrambling to find parking on higher ground to save their cars from flooding.

Although Hermine veered out to sea, leaving the shore relatively untouched, the parking scare inspired one Sea Isle councilman to come up with a new plan to protect cars from future storms.

Councilman Jack Gibson wants the city to explore the possibility of building a parking garage. He suggested the city should look near the Municipal Marina, at the foot of the John F. Kennedy Boulevard entryway, for a “practical location” for a garage.

“It would give us an elevated location in storms,” he said of an above-ground garage.

Speaking during City Council’s meeting Tuesday, Gibson noted that residents parked their cars at the local Wawa or even left town altogether to find higher ground when it appeared Hermine would lash the shore.

He said there is no elevated parking on the low-lying island, leaving cars vulnerable to storm flooding.

Gibson wants the city to consider including a garage in its upcoming capital plan, a blueprint for municipal construction projects.

A garage, Gibson said, would provide elevated parking on the island for the next 50 years. With predictions that storm surge may become progressively worse in years to come because of global warming, a garage would become increasingly important, he said.

Gibson pointed out that a garage could also help ease Sea Isle’s parking shortages during the summer season, when the beach town’s population swells with an influx of vacationers.

The perennial parking shortage was emphasized in the city’s updated master plan, which is going through the public comment phase before it will be adopted by the Planning Board and then sent to City Council for possible changes and a final vote.

The master plan includes several recommendations to create more parking throughout town. They include constructing off-street parking where land is available and building satellite parking lots.

A series of new parking requirements are also proposed in the master plan for both residential and commercial construction. The idea is, the bigger the building, the more parking that would be required.

“There was a major concern about a lack of parking in the summer, so that has been addressed,” said Marcia Shiffman, a planner with Maser Consulting, the firm that helped the city update the master plan.

Gibson’s proposal for a new garage has added another angle in the city’s efforts to create more parking.