THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 12, 1994 TAG: 9408110204
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Why City Council's rush to expand the Residential Parking Permit Program at the Oceanfront? Because the enjoyment and safety of that vast majority of law-abiding Oceanfront residents and visitors require it.
No question it was a rush job on residents. The end of one week, City Hall is hanging notices of a telephone poll door to door. The beginning of the next, City Council approves expanding the program, whether the poll results - residents' approval, as it turned out - are accurate or even indicative, nevermind scientific.
But no question, either, that parking is a problem at the Oceanfront, for resident and visitor alike, or that restrictions which steer visitors to city lots can reduce residents' encounters with the rowdiness, litter, even battery of too many night-trippers. And no question that the crowds expected over the Labor Day weekend magnify these problems.
If that's why the rush, it's a legitimate reason.
Making this permit process a pilot program provides a needed period of adjustment and improvement. Residents already complain that one free guest parking pass with each residential parking permit isn't enough; that extra passes are hard to get on short notice; that the restrictions should begin later than 8 p.m. or apply around the clock, that the program should be free, that giving permits for this year is unfair to residents who already bought them.
But then, fairness for all is hard to come by. Residents are due the quiet enjoyment of their homes, but not a lock on on-street parking. Visitors are due their day at the beach - but not necessarily free parking. City Council helped direct visitors to city lots by reducing the fee to $1 from 5 p.m. to closing at midnight for vehicles with Virginia Beach stickers. Council members Branch, Moss and Parker initially voted against that reduction - but because they wanted the current daytime fee ($4 weekdays, $5 weekends) reduced as well, to $3. Mayor Oberndorf suggested $1.
How much would further reduction have cost the city? Not enough, apparently, even to worry numbers-cruncher Moss. He suggested making city lots free.
But a rush decision might have set a precedent the city might not want to follow at other lots other times. And the better system of parking-lot fees is due next season: pay as you stay. by CNB