Written by Nancy Shields | Staff Writer
As of Oct. 17, 40 pay stations for 566 new numbered parking spaces went into operation east of Main Street in the central business district. The cost is $1 an hour, 50 cents a half hour, 25 cents for 15 minutes. The hours are the same as parking on the beachfront, 9 a.m. to midnight.
The reason there are fewer cars on Cookman, Mattison and Bangs avenues downtown is that many people who work and live there are choosing to buy an annual parking permit — $100 for employees and $30 for residents — which is a great savings compared with the meters but requires them to park up to a few blocks away on Lake Avenue or on designated cross streets.
“After 10 p.m., they can park anywhere but they have to move their cars into the designated zones by 10 a.m,” said City Engineer Brian Grant.
“To me it’s a no brainer,” said Amy Russo Harrigan, the owner of the new restaurant Toast, which opened in the 500 block of Cookman in July. “Keep the spots available for the people who eat. I think the restaurants and retail need the paid parking because people used to park for three hours and it didn’t help you because they didn’t come in.”
Harrigan said the $30 that residents have to pay for their annual permits seems doable but that the $100 for employees seems a little rough. She pays half of the cost for her own employees at the restaurant which is open for breakfast, lunch and brunch from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. She also owns a Toast restaurant in Montclair.
For years it cost nothing to park in Asbury Park because there were few businesses to attract people to come in. But the city came back the past decade and is now using parking as a source of revenue, much like other downtowns.
Three years ago, the pay stations started on the beachfront. Then this fall, they expanded into the downtown. Main Street is still free.
So far this year, the city has collected $941,000 in parking fees, Grant said. The city projected $800,000 for this year’s budget. There are 60 pay stations and 2,200 spaces on the waterfront.
The company the city is leasing the pay stations from Digital Payment Technologies.
“Given the magnitude of the project, the transition has been as smooth as it could be and that is because there was so much planning to do the waterfront first and then move into the downtown,” said City Manager Terence Reidy. “Now, for the first time in the last five years, you can find parking downtown.”
Reidy said the parking is tied to the city’s need for revenue but it’s also about parking management.
“We knew all along the spaces there weren’t being managed,” he said. “Now we can see what is the real need for parking. Now we are starting from a realistic measurable base and from here, can continue to provide growth.’’
City officials said it seemed evident that some commuters from Ocean Grove have been using the free parking spaces downtown and those people probably are parking elsewhere now.
Police Officer Eugene Dello, the city’s parking operations manager, said the most complaints have come from downtown residents who have to walk farther to and from their designated parking areas. He said police are working to allay fears that they aren’t safe.
Patrick Schiavino, who lives above his art gallery in the building he owns in the 600 block of Cookman Avenue, said that safety is a priority for him and his girlfriend. He said he previously parked right in front of his building.
And Kelly Erving, a personal trainer at Club Asbury gym above Leo Clark’s Fitness Lifestyles store in the same 600 block, said safety is a concern to her as well.
“But the upside is people coming to Asbury Park are pulling up and getting a space right out front,” she said.
Clark, who bought the former Newberry’s over a decade ago, has a sign out front that he will take the cost of parking off any sale he makes.
“It’s good that there are spots out there for patrons,” he said. “I was one of the worst offenders. I parked in front of my own store.”
He said perhaps the hours could be cut back, that charging from 9 a.m. to midnight seven days a week is a little much. And he’s not sure if downtown Asbury Park is ready for paid parking yet.
Marianne Schell, a real estate agent with the John C. Conover Agency, thinks the city is ready.
“It leaves parking space for customers,” she said. “I think people would rather pay a dollar to park and not have to drive around.”
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