Downtown Merchants Want Brakes Put on Year-Round Parking Meters

By MADDY VITALE Parking fees are going up in Ocean City this summer -- from the meters to the municipal lots. The Downtown Merchants Association, a group representing local business owners, had come up with the idea to have parking meters on Asbury Avenue remain in operation year-round, and it was a provision included in the parking ordinance approved by City Council at the April 13 meeting. Since then, the merchants have reconsidered and want the meters to remain in effect only from May through October -- the traditional time for parking fees in Ocean City each year. “From our meeting Tuesday, the consensus in the room was not to move forward with year-round parking this year,” Caitlin Quirk, the newly elected president of the Downtown Merchants Association, said Thursday. “As it stands now, we will go to City Council to ask them to repeal the year-round meter portion only.” Originally, representatives of the association went before Council in March to say that higher rates at the downtown meters would help to create more parking spots for shoppers. As it stands now, the inexpensive downtown parking rates encourage retail workers, residents and non-shoppers to grab the spots, they said. But Quirk said about 50 merchants attended the meeting and voiced concerns over the year-round parking meter idea. Quirk explained that some of the merchants feared that year-round parking fees could scare away shoppers from the downtown. “It came down to having more voices in the room. Originally, when the year-round meters were discussed, there were only 14 merchants in the room. Once people heard about it, we had 50 people in the room,” she noted. People weren’t as informed, and we have more people in the room.” She said there are some ideas that are being discussed by the merchants with the help of Police Chief Jay Prettyman. “We came up with other solutions instead of year-round parking meters with Chief Prettyman,” she said. Police may send out letters reminding the public to abide by the parking ordinances. Re-engineering would involve tweaking the ParkMobile app. Downtown parking meters are in operation from May to October as it stands now, but could be extended year-round unless there is a change to the city's new parking ordinance. With one proposal by the Downtown Merchants Association, which is made up of 100-plus storefronts along Asbury Avenue, there could be changes to the ParkMobile app. The downtown is currently considered one zone. With the app, parking would be limited to three-hour time slots, and people couldn’t re-up on the app. But if the downtown was sliced into different zones, then shoppers could spend up to three hours in one side of town and more time in other zones. This way, there is still movement from the parking spots but visitors could still enjoy the downtown shops and restaurants, Quirk explained. When it came to enforcement, Quirk said the last thing the merchants want is for people to be ticketed. “No one wants to ticket people but we do want people to move their cars after three hours,” she said. “The downtown does such a good job to make it a year-round destination to shop. Our goal is to think for the next year about what we can do and revisit it by next April.” Quirk, owner of Bowfish Kids on Asbury Avenue, spent the past five years as vice president of the merchants association. She replaced longtime president Danielle Guerriero. The position of vice president still needs to be filled. "I truly enjoyed my time working alongside Danielle as her vice President for the past five years and am thankful for all the things that we learned together over that time," she said of Guerriero. "She did an amazing job working alongside the city and the chamber and I will strive to continue to strengthen that collaborative relationship." Quirk has been a business owner in the city for 10 years. She first opened her children’s apparel shop on the Boardwalk in 2012. “I think my ambition is to always make things better,” Quirk noted of taking over as president of the Downtown Merchants Association. "I wanted a shot to make a positive contribution to the downtown.” She forged a good friendship with Boardwalk Merchants Association President Wes Kazmarck over the years. She said she hopes that there will be more events between both associations. “The best thing we are looking to do is strengthen the communication between the downtown, Boardwalk and the Chamber,” she said. Caitlin Quirk is the new president of the Downtown Merchants Association. (Photo courtesy of Caitlin Quirk)