Vacation Destination Ocean City MD is building garages. They have determined that over the next 15 years they will be down 500 spaces so they are going to solve the problem by charging developers in lieu fees of $15,000 and then using the money to build a garage. Read about it here.
Be particularly cognizant of the last paragraph. It says that basically there is a large parking area on the north side of town that never fills. 25% of its spaces are always available. Now what’s my guess. Merchants and their employees are taking spaces down town so that visitors are crowded out. What do you think? Could it be true…
How to solve the problem…Well, you could charge more for parking down town, increase the onstreet prices to force the long term parkers off street. Lower the prices off street, maybe in the north side lots so folks could park there, and lay on a shuttle to take them back and forth. Ocean City can’t be that large, its probably a five minute ride.
My guess is that this would solve the parking issues in Ocean City, abrogate the need for a garage. By the way, the garage is going to be 1200 feet from the downtown core. Not that a quarter of a mile is a lot, but my guess is that existing parking is more convenient…
But what do I know. Building garages is the thing to do.
I’ll be in Ocean City Week after next for the MAPA conference — I’ll check it out and report back.
JVH
