Officials of the New Hanover beach town will consider rate hikes at a meeting next week

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH -- Hurricane Florence and dozens of other days with wet weather could have a lingering impact on beachgoers' pocketbooks for years to come.

A drop-off in revenue due to last year's record-breaking wet weather -- including Florence's drenching -- could prompt officials in Wrightsville Beach to increase the cost of public parking in the popular New Hanover County beach town.

Next Tuesday, Wrightsville Beach aldermen will debate raising the rate from $2.50 to $3 per hour at all on-street meters throughout the town and at all lots or just at the lots with bathrooms adjacent to Shell Island, next to Johnnie Mercers Fishing Pier, next to Shell Island and on North Lumina Avenue. The town will also consider tweaking enforcement periods for some areas to the same March-to-October period used at beach lots.

Revenue from parking fell 2.4 percent from 2017 to 2018, totaling $2.94 million. Wrightsville had projected about $3 million in parking revenue for 2018. The money collected by the town's parking program is most frequently used in the town's beach nourishment fund.

Extra revenue reaped from parking hikes would also go to a number of other projects ongoing in Wrightsville Beach, including a $2-million park being built on Salisbury Street at Johnnie Mercers Fishing Pier, including new landscaping, underground utility lines and expanded bathroom facilities.

"People will see this negatively, as they always do," Mayor Bill Blair said. "But the fact is, people want these upgrades and it all comes with cost. If we are going to do it, we are going to have to pay for it."

According to projections prepared for the town, revenue would not dip even if demand did by as much as 15 percent. If demand stayed equivalent, the town would earn as much as an additional $410,000 annually.

Raising the rate to $3 per hour would require the town to find a way to collect fees at 200 spots currently equipped with gray meters. About 40 of these spots could, according to town staff, be turned into pay-by-phone spaces, while the town would need to buy about 150 meters for North Lumina Avenue and Waynick Boulevard.

Upgrading 150 meters and putting signs near the pay-by-phone spaces would cost about $130,000, with money likely coming from the general fund. Only about 11 percent of parking fees, Blair said, are paid with coins -- down from 60 percent a decade ago.

"We are down to the difficult meters so old they don't take credit cards," the mayor said. "We are faced with a capital improvement in the whole system to keep up."

Reporter Hunter Ingram can be reached at 910-343-2217 or Hunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com.