OPINION: Stop raising parking fees at Wrightsville Beach
Originally published on April 24, 2021.
Moving to the beach comes with high expectations, high temperatures and most importantly, high costs. The town of Wrightsville Beach is no exception.
Visitors have to pay $5 an hour to park just to shop, dine and enjoy the sun. Is that fee really worth it?
The jump in parking costs from 2018, when it was half this amount at $2.50 an hour, is classist and exclusionary. The costs have been rising annually and reached a new high for the summer season of 2021. This needs to be reevaluated and changed for all beachgoers to enjoy this public area.
Property taxes for the Town of Wrightsville Beach are at an all-time low for the entire southeastern region of North Carolina. Going just a few miles south to Carolina Beach, property owners pay double that of their peers on Wrightsville Beach island. For every $100 of assessed property value in Carolina Beach, owners pay $24.50 in taxes, compared to $12.50 in Wrightsville Beach. With these beaches being nearly equivalent and offering similar opportunities for residents and visitors, it is expected that these rates should not differ so significantly.
Do I expect property owners of these beach towns to cover all expenses of visitors through property taxes? Absolutely not. But Wrightsville Beach is the only place in North Carolina where an exception to the use of parking fees exists, allowing the town to put revenue from street parking meters toward other uses, not related to any parking facility, street maintenance or other parking-related use.
This exception was made in 1998 with intentions unclear 23 years later, however, the implications of this law have made it so that Wrightsville Beach taxpayers get a hefty premium, while visitors make up for their discount. In 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Wrightsville Beach estimated the revenue from parking fees to be around $3 million—a similar value to that of property taxes at approximately $3 million, as well. Without the revenue made by beach visitors paying parking fees, property taxes would have to double in order for the town to maintain its budgeted expenses each year.
A healthy compromise needs to be made. If visitors are expected to carry a portion of the burden of expenses that should be paid by property owners, it should be at a reasonable price for beachgoers.
With a change to Wrightsville Beach’s exceptionally low property tax rate, parking fees would not need to rise to expenses that are nowhere near affordable to those who reside in the local Wilmington area. Almost a quarter of Wilmington’s residents live below the poverty line. These are people who deserve to enjoy this public space and should have an option to do so at a reasonable price. If property taxes increased by just a small percentage, this would be possible.
Ashley • Sep 2, 2021 at 3:45 pm
Was there this past weekend and played all their overpriced parking games. Paid $10 for two hours, returned to car after 1.5 hours on the beach. Ticket on the windshield for $50. I could have paid $25 for the entire day! Luckily I had retained my receipt at the meter at Jackson Parker site, so had evidence that I was ticketed 2 minutes after I paid the meter. Actually saw LEO #8 cruise past in his little cart while getting out of our car. Guess he did his best to race back to give us citation before we could register at the general meter 10 yards away. Total extortion of the exact industry that built and sustains the area. Appealed the ticket and won, solely because I had my receipt. If you want to drive tourists and their dollars out of the area, continue to raise parking fees and issue false citations from glorified meter maids. Despite a beautiful beach and nearby Wilmington, we’ll spent our cash elsewhere. Too much gorgeous coastline to have your vacation tainted by this frustration.
kity • Aug 21, 2021 at 9:50 pm
How can we voice out concerns for goverment to hear us?
I do not have numbers but I bet there is huge lost in revenue for local hotels, shops, bars, restaraunts and local goverment because people went to VA, SC and GA instead of NC.
parking should be affordable
Tarrus • Jun 2, 2021 at 11:12 am
This is terrible but it is happening with all the NC beaches. I had been going to Kure Beach regularly for over a decade due to its free parking. I went there for the first time this year on Memorial Day & after enjoying some beautiful weather & cool ocean breeze, I return to my car with a citation ticket on my windshield. I was like ‘what the heck?” Even though I tried to appeal it, I was denied. I had no idea Kure started charging for parking since April 2021. I understand these beaches are trying to raise revenue, especially after losing money during the pandemic, but the high rates to park is ridiculous. It is not worth paying $5 an hour to shop, eat, & chill on the beach. Some things our taxes already pay for & it feels like we are paying double. We are living in a time in America where we are now paying for natural resources that used to be free & is free in certain countries.
KILL • May 13, 2021 at 8:09 pm
FEES
Bryan Alan Ford • Apr 27, 2021 at 6:43 am
I’m just going to start parking at Mayfaire and taking an Uber or Lift to Wrightsville. I will not pay that parking fee on principle (even if I could afford it). I will kindly ask the city of Wilmington to boycott thr parking meters at Wrightsville Beach. They need to experience a financial loss in order to consider changing the fees. Otherwise it’s just going to keep going up.
Shreed • Apr 26, 2021 at 11:12 am
Is it true there is no public transportation that goes to Wrightsville beach?
Megan • Apr 26, 2021 at 12:00 am
No one likes the parking fees. If they raise the parking fees then we should have more parking spaces. A lot of times you can’t find a spot so you end up leaving or parking at mayfaire and taking and Uber to the beach which is cheaper than the all day pass.
Shreed • Apr 25, 2021 at 11:42 pm
It almost feels like they are trying to keep a certain demographic away from Wrightsville beach on purpose 🙁
Heather Gilbert • Apr 25, 2021 at 11:36 pm
I’m outraged that they would even think of charging $5.00 per hour. I will not park there at those rates. I will shop elsewhere.
Jerry Bramley • Apr 25, 2021 at 1:29 pm
““`I understand the need for parking fees to help offset the costs of providing policing, beach safety, etc. However $5.00 an hour is extortion. Any municipality with business or shopping would go bankrupt charging those fees. No one would venture to such a city, when parking in the suburbs is free. Wrightsville Beach, however, has a “public” beach that is only public if you have a car and $5.00 an hour. In effect, the town fathers hold the beach hostage. The poor can’t to go to the beach. There’s no free parking within two miles of the beach. But…. every year Wrightsville town council begs and receives beach renourishment fund from the federal government paid for by tax payer dollars. Many of those tax payers don’t have an extra $5.00 an hour to go to the beach to enjoy the sand they paid for. Very elitist and self serving!!!
Bruce Clothier • Apr 25, 2021 at 8:43 am
Greetings, I worked for Lanier Parking the company that oversees parking in Wilmington, Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach. Of course they do not set the price of parking, only the enforcement.
Besides the traffic, the costs of parking at the beach makes the trip almost not worth it. I understand the reasoning behind it, they do not want someone parking in one spot all day, they want everyone the opportunity to enjoy shopping and the beach.
That being said, they could easily go to the honor system as the city of Roanoke, VA. does with Lanier Parking Solutions. The parking costs are reasonable, but you only stay two hours tops. You stay longer you get a parking ticket. In Roanoke, most of the revenue comes from the overtime parking as apposed to gauging people at the parking meter.
Also much of the parking revenue came from parking violations in safety zones like fire hydrants, fire lanes and no parking zones. I even mentioned this at a Lanier Parking Solutions meeting. But LPS does not make the decisions, the city and county governments do.
We were recently up in Pennsylvania looking at some property with plans on moving back home. We parked to get a bite to eat in a tourist area. The cost? Twenty five cents for one hour. When it gets crowded here to the point you cannot enjoy the beach? What’s the point of living here. And it is only going to get worse.
Joe • Apr 24, 2021 at 10:19 pm
You said it, classist and exclusionary in an era everyone wants to talk about equity and diversity. These parking fees do just the opposite!