By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City’s plan to raise the price of summer parking permits to $450 is getting some blowback from a senior citizen who believes residents on fixed incomes will not be able to afford the increase.
Anne Organ, a 77-year-old Sea Isle resident, criticized the proposed price increase while addressing Sea Isle officials during a City Council meeting Tuesday.
“I think that’s outrageous,” she said in remarks during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Organ, who lives on 39th Street, often appears at Council meetings to ask pointed questions about the city’s policies and spending.
Standing before Council on Tuesday, she asked city officials whether they intend to “fix this” for residents who wouldn’t be able to afford the higher cost for seasonal parking permits.
Organ said the price increase would especially be a burden for residents living on fixed incomes. She suggested that the city should give them special consideration if they can’t afford the permits.
On Dec. 12, Council introduced an ordinance to raise the price of seasonal parking permits from $250 to $450 each in 2024. In addition, weekly parking permits would go from $50 to $80 each.
There will be a public hearing and final vote on the ordinance at the Jan. 9 Council meeting at 10 a.m. in City Hall.
After listening to Organ, the Council members discussed whether it would be possible or even legal to create special exceptions for the parking permits, but seemed to defer to City Solicitor Paul Baldini’s suggestion to give the ordinance a trial run this coming summer.
“At least let it run and see how it works,” Baldini told Council.
Baldini added that the city would be able to fix any problems – if they occur – later on by revising the parking ordinance.
“I’m not against looking at it again,” he said.
Sea Isle charges for parking from May 15 to Labor Day. The seasonal and weekly permits allow drivers to park in the municipal lots and individual parking spaces. They save motorists from the headache of worrying about getting a ticket.
Parking is at a premium during Sea Isle’s bustling summer tourism season, making the permits a highly coveted prize. The city forbids the parking permits from being resold.
The seasonal permits routinely sell out each year, with demand particularly heavy on the first day they go on sale in early April. They are sold on a first come, first served basis.
Normally, 400 or 500 seasonal parking permits are sold by the city each year. For 2024, the number will be capped at 450. Customers will be limited to no more than three seasonal parking permits each. The permits will be transferrable from vehicle to vehicle, according to the proposed ordinance.
There are no limits on the number of weekly parking permits sold throughout the year. City Clerk Shannon Romano said the weekly permits in 2024 will offer motorists the advantage of parking for eight days, not seven.
Baldini said the price increase is designed to allow the city’s parking program to be self-sufficient.
Councilwoman Mary Tighe said even with the price increase, the seasonal permits are a bargain compared to how much it would cost to use the individual parking spaces over the entire summer. She said the average parking space generates $1,400 in revenue for the city each summer.
“It’s still a deal at that price,” Tighe said of the proposed $450 cost of the seasonal permits.
Tighe also said that Sea Isle would remain competitive with the price for parking permits in surrounding shore towns.
After the Council meeting, Baldini said in an interview that Sea Isle looked at the fees for parking permits in other shore towns before proposing the price increase. Even with the proposed price increase, Sea Isle will generally remain at the low end for the cost of parking permits when compared to other towns, he said.
“We did look around at other towns. We didn’t pick a number out of the blue,” he said.
Drivers who don’t have seasonal or weekly parking permits must pay using the cashless ParkMobile app that was introduced in Sea Isle in 2021. Sea Isle got rid of its old parking meters and kiosks in 2022 while transitioning to the ParkMobile system.
There is another option for people who may not feel comfortable using the app. They may call a toll-free number listed on the ParkMobile signs to speak to the company’s customer service center and use their credit card to pay for parking over the phone.
