By Donald Wittkowski
Ocean City mayoral candidate John Flood believes he has a way to help ease the parking crunch that forces drivers to spend “many hours circling the block” in search of open spaces.
Flood, a former councilman who is challenging Mayor Jay Gillian in the May 8 municipal election, said his plan would create more than 750 parking spaces at little or no additional cost to the city.
“As I am walking the city and knocking on doors, I find the one thing most people in Ocean City continue to agree on is the need for more parking,” Flood said in a press release Thursday. “I have watched the mayor and Council kick this around for years, talk about parking garages, etc. And while we continue to struggle and spend many hours circling the block looking for a parking space, it seems there may be a very simple solution for little or no cost.”
He wants Ocean City to take advantage of a New Jersey law that gives municipalities the option of reducing the distance that is required for parking spaces near stop signs from 50 feet to 25 feet.
“Currently, the state of New Jersey has set the distance you are allowed to park from a stop sign at 50 feet,” Flood said. “Relief may now be on the horizon, as in 2010 the state passed an amendment to the law giving municipalities the option by local ordinance where they can reduce the distance to 25 feet. It doesn’t appear that Ocean City may be taking full advantage of this option.”
There are restrictions, however. A municipality is not allowed to have parking within 25 feet of a crosswalk or side line of a street or intersecting highway, or within 50 feet of a stop sign in a school zone during hours when school is in session, according to the law.
Flood said in the press release outlining his proposal that the city should waste no time exploring the 25-foot parking option. He said he would act on it immediately if elected mayor.
“One of my first acts as mayor will be to present this opportunity to Council and the public for their consideration, discussion and input,” he said. “We could create an ordinance that would allow Ocean City to take advantage of this law. That would be the first step in the way the process should work.”
Ocean City’s parking shortage becomes particularly acute during the summer vacation season, when the town swells with tens of thousands of tourists.
Flood said his plan could potentially create new parking spaces in town wherever there are stop signs. He noted that parking spaces are 20 feet long.
“That may not sound like a lot but on an island where every space counts, it helps,” he said. “This could create upwards of 750 additional spaces island-wide at no cost to the taxpayer and save gallons of yellow paint.”
In an interview, Flood said it is not his intention to create more parking spaces to generate extra revenue for the city. Depending on their location, some of the new spaces could have parking meters, but most would be free across the city, he explained.
“It would be tip to tip, beach to bay,” he said of the new parking spaces created throughout town under his proposal.
