By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
The spaces have been lined and numbered, the meters are in place and now it is up to the City Council to decide when visitors to the Asbury Park beachfront will begin paying for parking.
The council was expected to set a timetable for when the meters will start being used at its meeting Parking Meters Wednesday night.
Councilman Ed Johnson said he wants the plan to be implemented in a smart way.
We want to make sure all the pieces are in place before beginning phase I, he said.
This is something new for Asbury Park, we havent had meters for over 20 years.
The new meters will accept credit cards, debit cards, coins and bills, said City Engineer Brian Grant.
Sixteen of the 32 meters, which cost $13,400 each, have been installed at the beachfront. The program is scheduled to begin there this year and eventually be extended to the downtown area, the transportation and city hall area and Main Street.
Grant said the city will be posting notices and putting up signage at each meter, including instructions.
The meters can be replenish anywhere in town, allowing a driver to put money in a meter at one end of the beach, walk to the other end, and recharge the meter located there.
Grant said the machine will print out a receipt with a transaction number that patrons can use to recharge the parking meter.
The meters were purchased through a co-op in Cranford, allowing the city to purchase meters with more features, such as accepting bills and not only coins.
We wanted to offer customers as many pay options as possible, he said.
Each meter can register up to 10,000 spaces.
Eventually, said Grant, there are plans to implement a Smart Card for Asbury residents and those who work in the city.
Grant said city officials investigated the use of similar parking meters in other towns including Cape May, Westfield and Pt. Pleasant where the meters generated $1.6 million last year.
Regarding some criticism that the timing for beginning the plan is not right, Johnson said, Now is the time to put the procedure in place to begin to manage our parking.
Johnson said he expects glitches, but says they will learn as they go. He pointed out that the meters are a way to raise revenues in ways other than through property taxes.
This is a user fee we need to look at creative ways to raise revenues, he said.
Johnson did not comment on when the meters will be online and operational.
We still have some work we need to do.
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That’s great that Asbury Park is trying to manage parking… but as a resident of Asbury Park, and a local Realtor, I still believe we need to raise property taxes. Many outside the city do not know that we pay 1/2 what other municipalities in Monmouth and the rest of NJ do. In fact, our 1/2 million dollar house requires us to pay the same property taxes as a $50,000 property in west orange, or a $250,000 house in PA!
The fact is, our school system is worse than Camden and Newark and a good percentage of the homeowners in Asbury Park are landlords that neglect their properties and make a ton of money. I recently asked a neglected property’s owner to sell, and she said “not for a million dollars”.
Is there really a need for parking meters already? Asbury Park is still a ghost town. Also, places like the Stone Pony—where customers are already paying a hefty fee just to walk in the door—should offer parking validation.
I think the changes in Asbury Park are good for the community, paying for parking, well, I don’t know.
What is the parking money for and what is the money used for. Most of the prices on the boardwalk are costly. You have to pay cover charges for entering the night clubs, drinks prices are off the chart. Who is this all for, the residents of Asbury Park or for the outsiders? I think we should put some focus for the residents born here, we still have plenty of good people here that care just has much about the development of Asbury Park as the outsiders. Let’s concentrate on re-building our schools, making our communities safer to live in, and giving our youths more structure in their lives. ASBURY PARK RESIDENTS START GETTING MORE INVOLVED! YOU HAVE A VOICE, USE IT!