News

By Tim Pallesen

    Coastal residents may soon see some relief from beachgoers who park on their narrow residential streets.
    Delray’s city engineer is working with the Beach Property Owners Association to identify streets that are too narrow to safely allow parking.
    “We’re studying whether individual roads can accommodate parking,” City engineer Isaac Kovner said.
    The city will install no-parking signs on Nassau Street this month in a pilot program to test public reaction.
    “Some streets are just too narrow to have any parking,” BPOA vice president Andy Katz said. “There’s not enough room for safe driving and it’s difficult for emergency vehicles to get through.”
    Streets less than 28 feet wide will get no-parking signs because state rules require 10 feet for each traffic lane plus 8 feet for parking.
    The likely streets where parking will be prohibited are Ingraham Avenue, Nassau Street, Bay Street and Ocean Terrace plus the west end of Miramar Drive and parts of Gleason Street and Venetian Drive, Katz said.
    All the affected streets are south of Atlantic Avenue, where beachgoers look for alternatives to the city’s metered parking.
    “Everyone comes to Delray’s beach and most everyone parks illegally whether there are meters or not,” Katz said.
    The BPOA push for tighter parking restrictions near the beach comes after residents in the Marina Historic District west of the Intracoastal Waterway got city support to prohibit nonresident parking on their streets.
    Marina District residents and boat owners at the city marina now may purchase annual parking permits. Nonresident vehicles without a parking sticker or guest pass are ticketed.
    The city, for now, isn’t proposing resident-only parking on streets that are wide enough in the beach area. “We’re not looking yet at whether there should be resident parking only,” Kovner said.
    But Katz said parking may be insufficient for both residents and nonresidents on some of the wide-enough coastal streets. He said homeowners on those streets could petition for permit-only parking.
    A majority vote of the residents on the affected streets would be needed.