MILTON, DE - A proposed parking impact fee had its first review from Milton's Finance Committee on Thursday. The initial proposal has some community members concerned about how it could affect local businesses.
Town officials told WBOC that the idea for the fee comes from an upcoming project that could allow the town to almost double its parking. The town's mayor said that, as the town continues to grow, he has received multiple complaints regarding the town's limited parking, which is shared amongst many businesses downtown.
According to town leaders, the project could cost more than half a million dollars upon completion. Officials said that implementing a parking impact fee in the town could help recover the cost of that future project.
Two initial proposals were presented at Thursday's meeting. The first proposal suggested the possibility of charging $1 for each ticket sold to shows or events in town. The second proposal suggested collecting a percentage of gross sales for businesses in town.
Milton's mayor John Collier told WBOC that no final decisions have been made.
"To me, those are the worst-case scenarios," Collier said. "I fully expect them to come back something a little less than what people are excited about."
Representatives of the Milton Theatre, one of the businesses that would be affected by the proposed impact fee, said they're opposed to the initial proposal.
The theatre's marketing director J.P. Lacap said the possible cost would cause their business a lot of work on the back end. He also said that, due to the theatre's age and location, they have no choice but to rely on street parking.
"One dollar doesn't really sound like a lot, but once you compound the amount of tickets we process and the amount of sales we process, that is 5,000 to 7,000 dollars monthly," Lacap said.
According to Lacap, the theatre sells 50,000 to 70,000 tickets yearly. He told WBOC that it feels like a lot of the fee's burden falls on their business.
"If there's a more creative way to not pass the burden to the local businesses, We would be very willing to work with them on that," Lacap said.
Lacap told WBOC that members of the community reached out to them in support of the theatre's concerns.
According to Milton's mayor, the idea of the impact fee is that, because the whole community will benefit from extra parking, the community will then shoulder the cost together.
"We're not picking on the theatre," Collier said. "The theatre is just one example. They are the largest draw, and when they have a show anybody who's coming for anything other than their show is competing for a parking space."
The Milton Finance Committee has until February to finalize a parking proposal for the town council to then decide on.
