Rehoboth Beach weighs 300-space, $9.95 million parking garage for downtown
Sarah GamardRehoboth Beach officials have spent the past year scoping out options to alleviate traffic congestion and parking woes.
Perhaps the most controversial among them is a downtown parking garage.
No plans for such a structure have yet been green-lighted. Officials haven't approved a development plan, but have shown signs that they are now considering a garage more seriously than in years prior.
"As everybody knows, parking and traffic management have been an issue in Rehoboth for many years," said Rehoboth Beach Commissioner Lisa Schlosser during a Monday meeting with fellow town officials.
The city is considering partnering with Colonial Parking, which has been responsible for parking garages elsewhere in the state, and EDiS Company, a construction management company.
The Wilmington-based companies have formed a joint venture for the project. They say that the city has been "plagued with the perception of inadequate parking for years."
Their solution is a parking garage with 300 spaces, which they presented to officials on Monday. The garage would likely be downtown near city hall and convention center. The structure could be built on the location of the current parking lot behind the fire department, its proponents say.
"We think that makes a lot of sense, and that there are already some good designs," said Colonial Parking president Jed Hatfield when presenting his proposal.
The garage would be a modern-age "mobility center" in line with a widespread trend: Garages are starting to provide more "wide-ranging" services, including serving new transit methods such as Uber and Lyft, Hatfield said.
"It's not just to park cars," Hatfield said. "It's to provide storage for scooters, for bicycles."
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The proposed structure would cost $9.95 million. The companies would lease the land from the city and fund development. Under the current proposal, the city would not have to shoulder any development costs or go into further debt. In return, the companies and the city would share the revenue from the garage.
The city's parking committee still has to consider the proposal, and as of Tuesday had yet to schedule its next meeting. Officials are also considering a "traffic study" to help decide on a possible garage.
The proposal aims to keep Rehoboth from shouldering more debt. Rehoboth is already hiking its sewer fees to pay the debt service for a recently constructed, multimillion-dollar ocean outfall built to address pollution to the inland bays. That's on top of other debt services that add up to about $59 million in outstanding debt, not including interest.
The mayor said residents and business owners have slowly warmed up in recent years to a new parking garage, which has been debated for the past two decades.
"People will have more opportunity to find spaces if there's more spaces," Kuhns said. "We don't have that much space in town."
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The mayor also agreed with Commissioner Pat Coluzzi's suggestion that a parking garage could instead be placed outside of town to "try to keep the cars out" and promote public transit.
Commissioner Schlosser cited concerns she has heard that a garage could effect the seaside town's culture.
"I don't know if it does or doesn't," Schlosser said, adding that officials need to "look at ways to improve how people come into (and experience) this city."
Visitors can already expect to pay more for parking this summer. Weekly permit fees will rise from $80 to $90, on top of a two-week extension to the permit season. Parking meter rates will be a little higher, depending on where and when you park. But parking between 10 p.m. to midnight is now free, which officials hope will invite more late-night business.
More changes could be on the way.
"I think, personally, that, over the next two to four years, there's probably going to changes in parking each time ... to give people more alternatives," Kuhns said.
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