Discussions continue to expand downtown Lewes parking

Lewes officials have been focusing on sharing the M&T Bank parking at the corner of Third and Market streets, but free parking outside the metered area may be a key piece to the puzzle.

The business district parking committee spent much time during its Nov. 6 meeting discussing parking areas within a short walk of downtown. The belief is that better promotion, signage and improvements to street markings and the general appearance may result in higher use of underutilized areas.

The city’s parking lot on Schley Avenue has long been a place where city officials want visitors and downtown workers to park, but very few people have actually used the lot.

“People just do not know it’s a lot because it’s not marked appropriately,” said Donna Cardano, a resident who lives near the lot. “Also, it’s unsightly.”

She said it looks like a parking lot for people working on a construction project on the nearby Delaware River and Bay Authority property.

Mayor Ted Becker agreed changes need to be made to the Schley parking lot. There have been preliminary discussions about reorienting the lot and adding landscaping and bicycle racks. He said better signage could be on the way as part of a large-scale project to improve signage throughout the city.

Committee members also discussed the possibility of marking parking spaces in the residential areas adjacent to downtown. Becker said one area he believes would greatly benefit is Third Street from Burton Avenue to Shipcarpenter Street, next to the Lewes Historical Society.

“It is largely underutilized unless Lewes Historical Society is having an event, and it’s a pretty wide street,” Becker said, noting there are very few driveways.

The problem with parking on streets without spaces clearly marked is that spaces are lost, he said.

“What happens is that a car will park and leave four feet in front, then another car will come and leave another four feet in front,” he said. “Soon, you’re eating up parking spaces.”

Father Jeff Ross of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church corroborated Becker’s observation about parking in unmarked areas.

“Living on Third Street, I can tell you that people do not park as tight as they can in that section,” he said. “It would be a good low-hanging fruit to delineate those spaces.”

If the city were to move ahead with marking spaces, Becker said, it would continue to be free. It is not the city’s intention to meter the spaces, he said.

Committee member Nancy Staisey agreed marking spaces on Third Street could be beneficial, but she’s less certain about the other residential streets near downtown because driveways and bump-outs could result in a loss of parking spaces.

M&T lot update

The committee continues to discuss public use of M&T Bank’s parking lot at the corner of Third and Market streets. Concerns about the cost, particularly to Hotel Rodney, were raised at the committee’s October meeting, so city engineer Charlie O’Donnell developed a more affordable plan.

The new plan would be in the range of $22,000 to $37,000 as opposed to the previous iteration’s estimate of more than $60,000. The biggest difference between the plans is the latest version does not relocated dumpsters, resulting in six fewer spaces.

If the city were to move forward with the new plan, it would gain 10 metered spaces and one ADA space. The city would also be able to meter M&T Bank’s 19 spaces when the bank is closed. Hotel Rodney would have four spaces in the latest plan.

“This reduces the spaces by six, but it also reduces the cost significantly,” Becker said. “Right now, the bank is offering us a two-year lease. Reducing the cost helps a lot since we’re only trying a two-year trial before we go forward.”