Milton council approves lease for parking at museum

Milton Town Council, by a 5-1 vote, approved a lease agreement with Milton Historical Society to use land adjacent to the Lydia Cannon Museum on Union Street for public parking.

Under terms of the lease, the town will be able to use the vacant lot at the corner of Union and Magnolia streets adjacent to the museum. The lease is for 10 years with an option to renew for five more years at a cost of $36,000 annually, with payments made by June 10 every year. The town will also be responsible for installing a pervious surface at the lot; in the past, the historical society had been reluctant to use that land for permanent parking as the lot has had flooding problems. The town will also install signs for the lot. 

At council’s Nov. 4 meeting, Mayor John Collier said the town has promises from Rep. Stell Parker Selby, D-Milton, and Sen. Russ Huxtable, D-Lewes, for $120,000 toward the cost of improvements at the lot.

“There’s been demand for more parking in the downtown area, and I think this is the best this council is going to be able to come up with. There’s just not any more land,” Collier said. 

Collier said the historical society will keep its gravel parking area behind the museum, but the current grassy area will be for general public use. He said the town does not intend to put asphalt down as the surface, but is instead looking at pervious pavers. Collier said the design of the lot is not complete, but with the lot, the town can double the amount of parking downtown.

Councilwoman Randi Merdith was the only no vote on the lease, saying the town will be undertaking a lot of expense over a long period of time without actually owning anything. 

“It’s a lot of money not to own a parking lot at the end of 15 years,” she said. “That makes me uncomfortable.”

Councilman Scotty Edler said, “I wish I could go back in time 20 years ago when the land around downtown was $15,000, $20,000 and we could buy a bunch of lots and turn it into a parking lot. We don’t have enough parking. People complain about parking all the time. This is quite possibly the last chance we have to create another municipal lot.”

While the new lot is part of the town’s short- and medium-term solution to parking downtown, the town’s finance committee is looking into a proposal that’s aimed at raising revenue to pay for future parking.

The first proposal would be a parking impact fee for paid, ticketed events. The resolutions specifically mention events at Milton Theatre, Milton Historical Society’s bus tours and Milton Garden Club’s garden tours. The resolution specifies an exception for entities that provide their own parking on their property, such as Dogfish Head and Milton Fire Department. 

The amount of the fee is still to be determined, but the idea is that the fee would be added to the price of tickets as a separate item. So, for example, if the fee is $1 and the theater charges $25 for an event, the ticket cost would be $26. The money raised by the fee would go into a separate reserve fund that would be solely dedicated to upgrading parking.

The second resolution proposed a parking impact fee to all sales via retail merchant and/or hospitality establishments within downtown Milton. The resolution calls for that fee to be one-half of 1% of gross sales, which would be added onto existing sales and remitted to the town every quarter. 

Both proposals have come under criticism from organizations such as Milton Theatre and the Women’s Club of Milton for their structure and implementation. 

The finance committee will resume discussion at its next meeting, 4 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 14, at Milton library.