NEWS

ASBURY PARK, May 29, 2009 -- Paid parking resumes June 15 at the city's beachfront.

Enforcement of the new meters was suspended last year after a multitude of complaints about many aspects of the operation.

A parking advisory committee was established to make recommendations to the City Council. Those ideas resulted in the introduction and passage of a new parking ordinance this spring.

When the city implemented its new centralized meter system last summer, payment was required from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m. The new ordinance stops meter enforcement at 9 p.m.

A fee of $1 an hour will be charged to park on Ocean Avenue, with a limit of three hours. A rate of 50 cents per hour will be charged to park on other streets near the ocean, with no time limit. There will be no metered parking north of Eighth Avenue.

Councilman Ed Johnson, who chairs the parking committee, said that residents in the beachfront area who have meters in front of their homes will be able to purchase a $30 permit which would let them park in metered slots other than those on Ocean Avenue. Those residents would also have to demonstrate a need for such a permit.

A guest permit will also be offered to those residents for $100 a year.

Paid parking began last August and problems with the system quickly became apparent.

At times, motorists would be ticketed as they were on their way to pay at one of the centralized meters, which are sometimes not even visible from a given parking space.

Some drivers got tickets as they waited in line to pay while other motorists struggled to figure out how to work the meters -- a problem which was made worse at night because the units were not illuminated.

There were complaints about the lack of signs along streets indicating that the meters even existed. For years, the city's old parking meters remained in place while paid parking was not in effect.

The advisory committee included representatives of boardwalk businesses, some of whom were told by customers last summer that the parking system was discouraging them from spending their money at the oceanfront.