By Kenny Walter
Staff Writer
LONG BRANCH- The city may change the regulations regarding parking meters in Pier Village after receiving various complaints regarding the two-hour parking limit.
Jason Roebuck, director of Public Safety, said during the Feb. 23 Workshop meeting, that due to the complaints, the council should consider changing how Long Branch regulates parking in Pier Village.
“We have to start talking about the meters, if there is going to be any changes in the ordinance,” Roebuck said. “We had a lot of issues, you guys all heard about the two-hour parking in Pier Village.
“So we are trying to fix that problem, and one idea was to get rid of the time limit and raise the price. So we want to start talking about that.”
However, Councilwoman Joy Bastelli suggested the city extend the two-hour parking in Pier Village and not raise prices.
“I would prefer to set it at four hours, rather than raise the price,” she said.
Last year the city made about $717,000 on parking fees, with $506,000 coming from Pier Village; $96,000 coming from the new Chandler and Maps lot on lower Broadway; and $114,000 coming from other parking meters throughout the oceanfront.
According to Roebuck, charging more in Pier Village may entice people to park in the city lots, where longer term parking is more encouraged.
Another possible change is to charge for parking on the west side of Ocean Avenue and the south side of North Bath Avenue, where there are 150 parking spaces that were intended to be saved for residents but beachgoers would often utilize to avoid paying the meters.
“What’s happening on the weekends, the people coming down, that’s where they’re parking,” Business Administrator Howard Woolley Jr. said. “When the free spots are full, that’s when they start parking in the pay spots.”
Roebuck also said one of the considerations for this summer is for people parking to use their license plate to identify parking as opposed to the current system of each space being identified by a number.
Roebuck also requested during the meeting that instead of buying seven regular police vehicles this year, the city make one or two of them SUV’s that he said will help during bad weather events.
“We’re not asking for anymore money,” Roebuck said. “There will still be seven vehicles, we just want to get one or two SUV’s.”
