FENWICK ISLAND, DE - The Fenwick Island Town Council discussed the potential of having paid street parking end at 5pm at their meeting on Friday.
Town leaders said the proposal came after local businesses expressed concern over parking for both customers and employees at a recent town Business Committee meeting.
Currently, the paid parking period is from 9am to 10pm in most areas, according to town officials.
Lulu Robertson works at Matteo's Salsa Loca. Robertson said the restaurant gets most of their business at night.
Once their shared lot is full, she said they rely on people willing to pay for street parking.
"It would give us more room for parking, not just for our business, but for all the other businesses that fight for parking," Robertson said.
The Atlantic Shoals Surf Shop is open until nine. Employee Abigail Ei told WBOC that customers at nearby restaurants will often use their parking rather than parking on the street.
"Everyone comes in at like dinner time and people can't get in our parking lot, so it's like back and forth," Ei said. "But, with free parking, it definitely would help."
At Friday's council meeting, Fenwick Island town leaders said their parking hours are in line with other towns in the area. They also said that cutting into the parking hours would cut into town funds.
"We did it to cover the costs of maintaining the roadways, parking spaces, the painting and everything else," council member Kurt Zanelotti said at the town meeting.
The town council decided to continue paid parking hours until 10pm.
Town leaders suggested that the business council come up with other ideas to propose at the council's next meeting. One example given was the idea of having designated days for modified parking hours.
