Rehoboth commissioners are far from figuring out how to address parking in the city’s commercial area, but one idea that has support from a number of commissioners is an old idea – a downtown parking garage.

During a special meeting Oct. 19, Commissioner Kathy McGuiness suggested the city put out a request for proposals to see how much a parking garage would cost and whether it would be worth it. She said there could be a public/private partnership opportunity.

Commissioners Lisa Schlosser and Richard Byrne supported the RFP suggestion. Byrne said other cities have parking garages with retail space as a way to offset the costs.

Mayor Paul Kuhns said a study was done about 10 years ago, and it showed a garage could be built in the parking lot next to city hall at about $30,000 a space. He said it would increase the number of spots from 100 to 350, but the city has no borrowing capacity and would probably have to go to referendum.

Linda Kauffman, parking committee chair, said there are private companies that take on all the risk of a parking garage, but they would also set the price.

When it comes to parking in the city’s residential areas, the commissioners appear to be on the same page – and that could mean far fewer free and discounted permits to the town’s residential property owners.

Currently, residential property owners in Rehoboth get two free transferable parking permits – a value of $250 each – and, upon request, a free nontransferable parking permit – a $225 value – for each vehicle registered in the property owner’s name. Additionally, property owners with a license to rent may purchase one transferable permit for each rental unit at $30 each.

The commissioners supported changing residential permit distribution to a 2/2/2 system – two free transferable, two free nontransferable and two free scooter permits.

The idea is to get more cars in driveways, Kuhns said. He said more than 1,000 permits were purchased this past season at the $30 price.

Overall, Kuhns said parking revenue – permit and meters – is up roughly $100,000 from 2017 to 2018. Kuhns said the rise in revenue is all from permit parking, which is up about $243,000 from last year. He said meter parking is down about $138,000 from 2017.

The 2/2/2 system was one of a host of suggestions made by the city’s parking committee to commissioners during a meeting in August as part of a comprehensive parking overhaul. Other suggestions included an increase in meters in the city’s core commercial district; extending the meter season and permit season to May 1 through Sept. 30; enforcing meters and permits from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and increasing the cost of business licenses that include a free permit or eliminating the free permit, among other items.

The parking committee recommended extending the hours for permit parking past 5 p.m. to match metered parking, which is currently midnight, but commissioners have considered changing the time to 9 or 10 p.m. The committee also recommended moving the beginning of meter enforcement from 10 a.m. to 9 a.m.

For the most part, commissioners are against setting permit enforcement time before 10 a.m. or beyond 5 p.m.

Commissioner Stan Mills called the the 5 p.m. time a sacred perk and said businesses like 10 a.m. because there are customers who come in beforehand.

McGuiness said she was OK with extended hours for permit parking, so long as something was done for people who work at the businesses.

A number of commissioners said parking signage needs improvement. One suggestion was making the 30-minute parking signs easier to see, so visitors don’t pull into a spot unnecessarily. Another was the creation of an app showing available parking as a visitor enters the city.

Kuhns suggested creating scooter parking by using more areas that are too small for cars, and making the permit $50, an increase of $10, for out-of-towners. He said there was a 5 percent increase in scooter permits over the 750 in 2017, and 90 percent were registered by people who live outside of town.

There was some discussion of extending of the season, but no commissioners were in favor of the May 1 through Sept. 30 proposal.

One of the few members of the public to speak was Nicola Pizza’s Nick Caggiano Jr. He said there’s been an unprecedented amount of discussion at the restaurant against extending the season. People who don’t want to come downtown in the middle of the summer still want to be able to come to Rehoboth and enjoy the Boardwalk and beach while the weather is still nice, he said.

No decisions were made, and Kuhns said at the November workshop meeting, a representative from T2 Systems, a parking management company, will be on hand to discuss some of the updates the city is working on. As of press deadline Oct. 22, the meeting agenda had not been published, but the meeting is scheduled Monday, Nov. 5.