No Parking restrictions on Amherst Avenue.
MARGATE – A municipal committee is investigating ways to create more parking spaces in the city. As older homes are razed and replaced with larger homes with more bedrooms, the number of summer visitors also increases. Along with those five- and six-bedroom homes come additional vehicles looking for a place to park.
Some homeowners park their cars when they arrived for the weekend and never move them until they leave town, leaving a shortage of spots for shoppers and restaurant goers.
Commissioner John Amodeo Thursday, July 3 said a committee comprised of the business administrator, chief of police, Planning Board chairman and zoning officer formed earlier this summer to investigate the parking issue. The committee started meeting after shop owners and residents complained that recent zoning decisions, such as allowing a 149-seat restaurant at the old Capt. Andy’s site and building a miniature golf course, both without off-street parking, would exacerbate the city’s shortage of parking spots, especially in business districts.
The city also lost several parking spots along the Amherst Avenue business district due to a failing bulkhead.
Roz Feldman Tyman of Jamaican Me Crazy said the city lacks a parking plan. Her business is down 10 percent this summer due to a lack of parking near her store, she said.
She wants the city to purchase the parking lot behind Johnny’s restaurant and turn it into a municipal lot.
“It’s like Key West, when the land is gone the land is gone, there’s nothing else you can do,” she at a recent meeting of the newly formed Margate Homeowners Association. “It’s only once in a lifetime that a property like that in a retail district will ever become available for purchase.”
Amodeo, who is committed to finding additional parking, said he wants to do it without impacting taxpayers.
“We have assigned duties to certain individuals to do some investigative work…to look at private entity owned parking lots and city owned public lots,” Amodeo said. “We talked about kiosk and fee parking and our existing ordinances that we may not be aware of.”
Amodeo said the committee would look at all options, including using the city’s impound lot, located off Monmouth Avenue between Decatur and Benson avenues, for public parking.
The city would also encourage shared parking at lots owned by local businesses after business hours.
“The discussion has started. We need details to work out,” he said.
Although he is reluctant to charge for parking, he is willing to consider kiosk parking, Amodeo said.
“The three commissioners up here, along with the guidance of the administrator, understand the cost of the parcels of land in the city of Margate. We are custodians of your tax dollars. We’re not here to spend money buying parcels that cost a lot of money. We’re looking at what city-owned property we have that we can convert and open up land.”
Parking is very limited 10 weeks of the year, Amodeo said, but the rest of the year there are plenty of places to park.
Amodeo said the city would also investigate city ordinances that regulate parking, including the 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. parking restriction on beach blocks.
“I realize you would ruffle some political feathers if you were to pull those stakes up, but Ventnor has parking on both sides,” resident John Sewell said.
Sewell said the city needs to strike a “reasonable balance” on parking restrictions.
Margate Business Association President Ed Berger said three members of the association would be willing to participate on the committee.
“We create a lot of our own problems when it comes to parking,” and solving the city’s parking issue is “paramount,” Berger said.
“We have some really good proactive ideas, and if we put our heads together we can make things better,” Tyman said.
