More Downtown Parking Proposed For Sea Bright Residents

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By Liz Sheehan
SEA BRIGHT – The number of residents-only downtown parking spaces will be expanded under legislation introduced by unanimous vote by the Borough Council at a special meeting Monday night.
A public hearing on the ordinance will be held at the council’s June 16 workshop meeting.
The designated streets – Beach Street, Center Street, Church Street, East Church Street, East New Street, New Street, Peninsula Avenue and River Street – previously had parking for residents only on one side of the street; now the restriction will be on both sides.
Police Chief John Sorrentino said Tuesday that there was a need for more parking spaces for residents because of the new paid metered parking system the borough established in its parking lots, where some residents used to park. There are around 600 parking spaces in the metered lots, which cost $1 an hour to park from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Parking passes must be obtained from the police department for resident parking, Sorrentino said.
He said two passes are available for each household, except for residents who live on Ocean Avenue, who can get a pass for the metered lots for one person per household.
Before the meeting, Chris Wood, owner of Woody’s restaurant on Ocean Avenue and Church Street, complained to the council members about the paid parking being extended to 9 p.m.
He said the late hours of paid parking was going “to drive people out of town” and affect the businesses. “It’s driving business away already,” Wood said.
He said he saw a car with several people in it pull up to the parking spaces in front of his restaurant and then pull out when the occupants saw the numbers on the spaces, indicating it was a metered space.
“The three summer months are basically our Black Friday,” Wood said, and the late hours for the metered parking were cutting that business down.
Wood said the paid parking was supposed to end at 6 p.m. “It’s got to go back to 6,” he said.
After the town’s business association dropped plans to file a lawsuit to block the metered parking system, the time went from 6 to 9 p.m., Wood said.
According to Wood, a meeting was held last month concerning the metered parking regulations and he was not informed about it.
Wood said that several other restaurants in the town had their own parking lots so were not concerned about the late parking charges.