Sea Bright Officials Secure In Use Of Metered Parking Fees

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By Liz Sheehan
SEA BRIGHT – Could a court decision last month that ordered Belmar to place funds from increased beachfront parking fees into the account that is utilized only for beach operations have any impact on Sea Bright’s new metered parking revenues?
Kenneth Pringle, who was the mayor of Belmar until 2010, recently argued in a suit against the town that Belmar beachgoers were not treated fairly because the town was using the fees from beachfront parking for other uses than the operation of the beachfront, such as projects that did not benefit them.
Superior Court Judge Katie Gummer ruled that funds from the parking fees that had been slated for use for projects not related to the beachfront instead be put back into the beachfront account.
In 1989, the New Jersey Supreme Court said the towns on the Jersey shore could not use beach revenue to lower municipal taxes.
Councilman Charles Rooney said that because the parking in the Sea Bright lots is metered between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., it does not fall in the same category as Belmar, since it covers more than beach parking.
He said the council had only wanted to have paid parking from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. but the Sea Bright Business Association objected and said the burden of possible loss of customers from paid parking was being unfairly placed on the merchants and requested the time be extended to 9 p.m. to share it with other businesses in the town. The attorney for the Sea Bright Business Association, Rooney said, told the town that if the hours were not changed until 9 p.m., it would face a lawsuit. Rooney said that changing the metered parking to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. beyond beach parking hours “gets us out of that situation.”
“They actually did us a favor,” Rooney said.
“We would’ve probably found out about it eventually,” he said, referring to constraint on using beach parking fees for uses other than the beach facility as cited in the Belmar case.
Rooney was a strong supporter of the new paid parking system and at council meetings, stressed how the income from it would help pay for the $5.7 million bond issue that voters approved last month to rebuild facilities lost in Super Storm Sandy by lowering the burden of paying for the bonds on taxpayers.
Acting Borough Administrator Joseph Verruni said Tuesday that the 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. hours of metered parking make it general parking. He said that all the costs of installing and operating the metered parking system were paid out of the general funds of the borough, not the beach facility funds.
The paid parking system in the town extends from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day. The kiosks to pay for the parking have been removed for storage.