FENWICK ISLAND, DE -- Fenwick Island's town council is set to continue discussions on a proposal that would allow businesses to share parking within their lots. Some business owners are hopeful this is the first step towards more parking conversations.
The proposal would allow businesses in town to enter agreements in which they share off-street parking spots with each other during certain times of the day. The spots would only be for employees, and the agreements would be submitted through town offices.
Madison Lewis, the owner of Hightide Bowls and Coffee, said many businesses in town already have this agreement informally to help alleviate parking stress.
"We used to have to make employees park on the street, which was super difficult because Fenwick in general is a lot of residential parking," Lewis said. "Thankfully Our Harvest lets us park in their lot when they're not open cause they aren't open until 5 p.m. That really opened up a lot of spots for our customers."
Lewis said she thinks the proposal to allow formal agreements is a good idea. However, she said she hopes more conversations about additional ideas for customer parking follow.
"Even with having employees parking elsewhere, on a busy day in the summer, you can tell people are driving in and out of this lot because it's so full," Lewis said. "I think more parking in general would be helpful for all the business in Fenwick Island."
Tim Collins, owner of Southern Exposure and a long-time business owner in the area, said the proposal does not help in every scenario.
"If we open 4 or 5 spots on our lot to accommodate Mancini's restaurant next door, that's good, they get 4 or 5 more spots," Collins said. "But opening 4 or 5 spots is a lot different than being able to open up 20 or 25 spots."
Collins said he thinks town leaders also need to consider proposals to help with overflow customer parking.
"We've got some very aggressive business in town right now, some really good businesses generating more customers," Collins said. "I think the business community's general feeling is that traffic is gonna keep increasing."
That proposal is up for a second reading and a vote for adoption at Friday's council meeting. A full breakdown of the proposal can be found on Fenwick Island's website.