Workers in downtown Bethany Beach will find it a little easier to find a parking spot.
At their meeting this month, Town Council passed a number of changes to the city’s parking laws, including an expansion of the parking area available to people with a business parking permit. The change opens up that area from parts of two blocks to three full blocks.
“This is an attempt to help out with employees who work downtown,” said Town Manager Cliff Graviet. “We know we have a real issue and the business community speaks to us frequently about trying to find a way to accommodate their employees.”
Mayor Ron Calef noted the change especially helps workers who come in later in the day, when the beaches - and parking - are full during the summer season.
“This primarily affects those coming in for the evening shift, when there's still people on the beach and it's a hard time finding a parking space,” he said.
That proposal passed unanimously, as did a second package of parking changes designed to streamline the town’s requirements and provide more consistency. A big part of that consistency comes through making the pay-to-park window 12 hours across the town.
“This change establishes one 12-hour pay-to-park zone in Bethany Beach, replacing a 10-hour zone and a 13-hour zone with one zone for consistency,” Graviet explained.
Vice-Mayor Jerry Morris added that the change will keep confusion about Bethany’s parking regulations to a minimum.
"This is just the process of changing times, so they're more uniform, so we don't have 15 different combinations for people to worry about,” he said.
And, Graviet noted, that confusion isn’t just among people parking their cars.
“Parking enforcement will tell you that they have people that work in enforcement for the entire summer and can't keep all of it straight,” he said.
The change to parking zones also passed unanimously.
