Hilton Head North Carolina — The City council is considering dropping parking charges in the upscale Colony area of Hilton Head. A council member thinks it will make the area more inviting to workers who live outside the area but work in Hilton Head — the idea is that they will come back on their days off and spend time and money in the community. Read about it here.
My prediction: Here’s a news story that you will read in about six months.
Hilton Head (NC) merchants and residents are up in arms because there is no place to park in the community. The City Council is being asked to do a study on the need for a new parking structure to handle the excess cars that are clogging the community.
Bill Smith, local merchant, complained: "I can’t believe it, almost overnight there;s not enough parking, and frankly my gross sales is dropping off a bit. We are down 15% from last season. I think everyone is going to that new mall outside of town where there is plenty of parking."
"Well, if you would keep your employees from parking in front of my store, Bill, there would be enough space for my customers," Said local Jeweler Mary Smith. "In fact, I saw your Mercedes parked just up the street from you store — how to you expect people to be able to park if you take all the spaces."
The City council has budgeted $250,000 for a consulting firm to do review of the parking in the city, with the goal to "clean up this parking mess."
"I just can’t believe it," said Mayor Mickey Finn — "Just a few months ago we had plenty of parking and now we are overwhelmed. What happened?"
The consulting firm will be asked the same question. The RFP is out.
I’ll check the Charlotte Observer around November
JVH
