REHOBOTH BEACH, DE -- Revenue collected from the paid parking, parking fines, and other related parking income streams totaled roughly $998,000 less than what was projected by the city's budget, according to city leaders.
Rehoboth Beach's Assistant City Manager Evan Miller said they still made nearly $10 million off of parking for the 2025 season. However, Miller said that the number was around $600 thousand less than they collected last year.
"We attribute most of that to the poor weather we saw in June," Miller said. "I think everybody experienced a lot of the rain we had that month. We certainly saw it here; there were not a lot of visitors."
That million-dollar number was a surprise to some business owners, like Patrick Turner over at Odysea.
"It was a surprise to me," Turner said. "We certainly didn't see any decrease in traffic down here during the summer months. That number is obviously worrisome because how will the city make up for that shortfall?"
Revenue generated from parking goes into the city's general fund, according to city leaders. It's also not the only income stream going into that fund. Miller told WBOC that they don't expect the shortfall to affect city finances, as other revenue streams saw numbers higher than they initially anticipated.
However, Miller said they will likely make adjustments for future budgets.
"We'll look into budgeting a little bit more conservatively with parking revenue. Budgeting a little less than we actually expect to make is probably the first step," Miler said. "The other step will be adjusting the revenue streams based on where the revenue is coming from. We've seen a downturn in coin revenue, and credit card payments have also gone down a little bit."
"We also may end up starting to remove more and more parking meters, as we see the pay-by-phone revenue increasing year over year, just to cut some of the costs related to maintaining the meters," Miller said. "We're also looking at a virtual parking system for parking permits as soon as 2027."
Turner said he hopes any future decisions Rehoboth Beach leaders make to address parking revenue shortfalls keep local businesses in mind.
"I don't think you can raise the parking prices anymore," Turner said. "We hear from a lot of folks, especially when it first went up to $4 an hour, that it really is a hindrance to them coming down."
Miller said there are not currently any plans to raise the hourly parking fee or to extend the paid parking season. However, he said that could be an option further down the line as they review future budgets.