The stylish 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage in Miami Beach is another example of an attractive structure that impressed Councilman Jody Levchuk. (Courtesy of Miami Beach Advisor)
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
On his family trips to Disney World in Florida, Jody Levchuk has been impressed with the way Downtown Disney has blended its parking garages within its resorts instead of making them looming, unsightly structures.
“They’re pretty, not ugly, structures. The experience starts there, the moment you pull in,” he said of the role the parking garages play in enjoying the overall Disney attractions.
Levchuk wonders whether something like that could be done in Ocean City. He believes the city should explore the possibility of building a parking deck or parking garage that could be integrated into the community in a location that wouldn’t be obtrusive.
Levchuk, the city’s Third Ward councilman, stressed that it is only a preliminary idea that would need a lot more study by city officials, the business community and local residents before any decisions are made to move forward with such a project or reject it.
“I have no idea what it would be like, where it would be located, how high it would be or how many stories,” he said in an interview.
He’s also not sure whether it would be a traditional, enclosed parking garage or an open-air parking deck.
However, Levchuk believes something must be done to help ease Ocean City’s well-known shortage of parking during the peak summer tourism season. Parking can also be hard to find during major events in town during the off-season months, he pointed out.
“Obviously, traffic is our biggest problem in town, as well as finding parking. When they have these events going on, even during the off-season, parking is an issue,” he said.
Levchuk said there is “no doubt in my mind” that the city should consider building a parking deck or garage – whether it would do it by itself or perhaps through a public-private partnership.
“We just have to do it in the right way,” he said.
But Levchuk also said that if city officials, business owners and residents don’t like his idea, he won’t pursue it further.
“My No. 1 job is to make the people in Ocean City happy, or at least the majority of them,” he said.
In the meantime, he thinks a “strategic planning committee” representing all stakeholders should study the possibility of building an attractively designed garage in a place where it could be suitably located within the community.
Councilman Jody Levchuk wants to create more parking to ease a shortage.
In addition to the attractive Disney parking garages, Levchuk has been inspired by a garage at 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach that has been widely acclaimed for its eye-catching design, amenities and the way it has been integrated within the city.
“The important thing to understand is that I don’t want to put an ugly, concrete structure in the middle of town,” he said.
A new parking garage would be critical in drawing more day-trippers to Ocean City and also freeing up more downtown parking spaces for shoppers along the Asbury Avenue retail corridor to help local businesses, Levchuk said.
Levchuk is co-owner of the Jilly’s family of shops on the Ocean City Boardwalk and downtown. He wants to see a quicker turnover of the metered parking spaces in the downtown district to improve the flow of shoppers along Asbury Avenue. A strategically located parking garage would help to do that, he believes.
“The way to get people to come here and be comfortable is letting them know that parking is not an issue here,” he said.
Even after the height of the tourism season, Levchuk believes a parking deck or garage would be an asset. He said it could serve as a place for homeowners to shelter their cars when winter coastal storms strike Ocean City and unleash flooding.
Levchuk is worried that Ocean City’s parking shortage will be exacerbated if developers move ahead with plans for a condo-hotel project proposed on an empty lot overlooking the Boardwalk at 11th Street and Ocean Avenue next to the historic Flanders Hotel. The property has been used for parking for years.
Dubbed Soleil Resort, the project would include 111 condo units in a six-story building. The proposed luxury condo-hotel has languished on the drawing board for more than 15 years, but received final approval from the Ocean City Planning Board last May. The two-acre property is also listed for sale on the commercial real estate site LoopNet.com.
There’s a lot of people who depend on that as a parking lot,” Levchuk said of the property.
Shown with the Flanders Hotel in the background, the Soleil Resort property at the corner of 11th Street and Ocean Avenue is currently used as a parking lot.
As part of his idea for a parking garage, Levchuk believes the city should also broaden its sights to explore the possibility of having its own “official Ocean City transportation system.”
He is not sure at this time what type of public transportation might work best, but suggested that an electric system of trains, trolleys or tram cars should be considered as a way to shuttle people around the city.
It would not operate on the Ocean City Boardwalk like the tram cars on Wildwood’s Boardwalk, he noted.
The transportation system could be branded to promote Ocean City and would be clean, comfortable and efficient, he said.
“It’s got to be done right and run right,” Levchuk said.
