DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997              TAG: 9704020472

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   65 lines

BEACH STARTS ENFORCING METERED PARKING

Three little words come to mind this time of year: pay to park.

One way or another, residents and visitors will have to use spare change to feed curbside meters or shell out folding money to occupy a space in a municipal parking lot at the Oceanfront. Otherwise, motorists might find themselves contributing to the more than $207,000 in resort parking fines collected annually.

The city began enforcement of metered parking and the permit parking program in neighborhoods closest to the resort strip Tuesday.

Metered parking is enforced 24 hours a day through Sept. 30. The going rate is 75 cents per hour.

Municipal lots are open weekdays from 8 a.m. to midnight and on weekends from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Rates vary from $3 to $7 a day, depending on the location. After 5 p.m., cars bearing city decals can park for only $1 until closing at any city-operated lot.

All municipal parking lots, including a new multi-story garage at 9th Street and Pacific Avenue, opened for the season Tuesday, said Henry Ruiz, head of the city's Parking Systems Management office.

Aside from the new $7.2 million parking garage, the city has opened its 4th street lot under the Rudee Inlet Bridge and installed 100 new meters on the tract. They will replace the manned toll booth, said Ruiz, and the fee will be the same as any other metered spaces on the strip.

While Ruiz added meters to the 4th Street lot, he removed meters within a three-block radius of the 9th Street parking garage. The object, he said, is to encourage Oceanfront visitors to park in the garage, which has 612 spaces. The going rate there is $2 per hour or $1 a half-hour with a maximum daily fee of $7.

The city expects to provide 130 more parking spaces directly on the Oceanfront at 31st Street, when a portable ice skating rink is moved from the location. Ruiz is securing a use permit for the 31st Street parking operation, which he hopes to open by early May.

Parking is big business in Virginia Beach, he will tell you.

Data show that the parking program raised $1.02 million in 1996, with $565,163 going to cover expenses.

Money is also raised from motorists who run afoul of the city's parking regulations. Last year, said Ruiz, the city issued 21,000 meter violations and generated more than $207,000 in fines.

About 13 percent of those violations were voided. The city's policy is to void a ticket if a person walks up immediately after the violation has been written, Ruiz said.

Ruiz expects the city to increase the 1996 parking revenue by at least $100,000 this season, when the 31st Street lot opens.

In 1995, the last time the 31st Street property was used for parking, the city took in $118,000 in fees, but had to pay out $20,000 for operational costs and another $70,000 in rent to the Virginia Beach Development Authority, which owns the tract. MEMO: For additional information on the operation of the city's

metered parking system, municipal parking operations or the residential

permit parking program, call 437-5750. ILLUSTRATION: PARKING COSTS

Oceanfront parking fees are:

Meters: 75 cents per hour.

Municipal lots: $3 to $7 a day.

New garage: $2 per hour or $1 a half-hour with a maximum daily

fee of $7.

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