By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City condo owners Bill Seefried and Bob Day are stuck with mechanical parking lifts that they say are ugly and dangerous.
Seefried and Day want to get rid of them, but their hands are tied by a state law that requires the lifts as part of the parking requirements for their condominium complex at 4314 Park Road.
“They are inherently dangerous,” Seefried said of the lifts during comments at a City Council meeting Tuesday.
Seefried and Day appealed to Sea Isle officials to intervene on their behalf during a public hearing on a new ordinance restricting mechanical parking lifts throughout town.
Council approved the ordinance Tuesday by a 4-1 vote. Councilman Frank Edwardi cast the dissenting vote, but did not comment publicly on why he opposed it.
Although the ordinance won’t completely ban car lifts or stacked parking, it does impose strict regulations to discourage them in both residential and commercial zones in Sea Isle.
For residences, stacked parking spaces will be prohibited except for single-family homes and duplexes that have driveways and parking areas “which are clearly separate from any other driveways and parking areas on adjacent lots,” according to the ordinance.
Mechanical car lifts will be prohibited in all zoning districts except for a few exceptions, the ordinance says. They would be allowed in residential areas if fully contained within a garage. If they are built within commercial zones, they would have to be “shielded from public view” and enclosed with a roof.
The ordinance also will eliminate what had been an incentive to build parking lifts. Previously, car lifts could be counted toward the number of required parking spaces for homes or businesses under the city’s zoning laws.
But now, car lift parking spaces “shall not count toward any use or zone parking requirement in the Zoning Code,” the ordinance says.
City Solicitor Paul Baldini explained that even if someone builds a parking lift, the top “space” of the lift will no longer be counted toward a homeowner’s or business owner’s parking requirements.
Baldini said because parking lifts are considered so unsightly by the city, Sea Isle wants to encourage developers to avoid including them in their projects.
City officials say they know of only three locations in town where there are parking lifts. The complex where Seefried and Day have their condos at 4314 Park Road is one of those locations.
Sea Isle officials indicated they are sympathetic toward Seefried and Day’s dilemma, but say they are virtually powerless in helping them to get rid of the car lifts at their condo building.
Baldini explained that a state law, known as the Coastal Area Facilities Review Act, or CAFRA, required the car lifts as part of the parking requirements for Seefried and Day’s condo complex when it was built.
“We have to enforce the CAFRA permit. We are the enforcement agency. If we don’t enforce it and they find out, not only do you get in trouble, but we get in trouble,” Baldini told Seefried and Day of the consequences of violating the state law.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio said he supported Seefried and Day’s efforts to dismantle the parking lifts. Desiderio suggested that they take a copy of Sea Isle’s new parking lift ordinance to Trenton to try to persuade CAFRA officials to reconsider their position.
“We’ll work together,” Desiderio told both men.
The developer who built Seefried and Day’s condos installed four mechanical car lifts to meet the CAFRA parking requirements for the building. CAFRA regulates development projects at the shore that are built within 150 feet of coastal waters. The condo complex at 4314 Park Road is located within 150 feet of some of Sea Isle’s lagoons that lead to the bay.
Seefried and Day use their Sea Isle condos as summer vacation homes. Seefried lives in Abington, Pa., while Day is from Philadelphia.
During the Council meeting, they spoke of their frustration in having the parking lifts and not being able to get rid of them.
“Our building has four lifts. It wasn’t our choice to build them,” Seefried said, referring to the condo developer’s decision to put them in.
Day and Seefried said the parking lifts are dangerous because they are crooked and also present a hazard to people walking near the metal structures. They said one woman in her 70s who lives at their condo complex hit her head on one of the lifts.
“We don’t use them because they’re dangerous,” Day said.
The parking lifts also have been vandalized, making it even more important for them to be removed, Day added.
The lifts are visible at the outside of their condo complex. Seefried and Day said they fear someone will be injured if they get too close to the lifts.
“We’re stuck. People are going to get hurt,” Seefried said.
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, Council approved Sea Isle’s 2022 municipal budget. The $26.7 million spending plan keeps local taxes stable and also holds the line on water and sewer rates.
Desiderio said the city started the year with a record-high $8.1 million budget surplus, reflecting Sea Isle’s strong finances overall.
“Six weeks ago, I reported to Council and the public that Sea Isle’s financial position is the best it has ever been,” Desiderio said of when he first unveiled details of the budget.
Council voted 5-0 to give the budget final approval Tuesday. Jack Gibson, Council president, praised Desiderio’s administration for crafting a spending plan that avoids a tax increase.
“It does not raise the local purpose tax this year at all,” Gibson said.
