KURE BEACH — A month after Carolina Beach removed over 700 residential parking spots to adhere to conditions for federal beach renourishment funding, a neighboring beach town is mulling the removal of discounted resident parking passes at the behest of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
READ MORE: Carolina Beach renourishment contract approved, residential parking passes still in discussion
Until Dec. 9, Kure Beach is requesting resident input and suggestions on proposed 2025 parking changes to comply with USACE’s requirements for equal access parking.
Commissioner Dennis Panicalli told Port City Daily the biggest proposed change is eliminating discounted resident parking passes. Currently, Kure Beach offers residents seasonal passes for $20 and non-resident passes for $225.
Other changes include:
- Increasing the hourly rate from $5 to $6
- Upping the daily rate from $20 to $25
- Shifting the weekly rate from $100 to $125
- $100 seasonal passes offered between Feb. 3 and March 14. Afterwards, passes would cost $225
“We are proposing to increase our hourly and daily rates to be comparable with other towns in the area,” Panicalli said. “The biggest thing to comply with the Army Corps of Engineers is to make sure everyone can afford parking at the same price. [USACE] doesn’t care what the price is, they just want to make sure everyone is treated the same.”
At the Monday council meeting, Mayor Allen Oliver said federal funds would cover 65% — or $9.7 million — of the beach renourishment project’s estimated $15-million price tag.
“My preferred approach is that the citizens provide input on,” Mayor Pro Tem David Heglar told Port City Daily. “I believe our citizens’ taxes help defray the costs of all the visitors and they should get a discount. But that’s not the position of the Army Corps of Engineers and they have us over a barrel.”
Unlike other New Hanover County beach towns, Kure Beach council did not choose to increase parking rates this year. Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach increased rates from $5 to $6 an hour and from $25 to $30 a day for premium spaces. However, Kure Beach uses Premium Parking, not Pivot — WB’s contractor since 2020 and CB’s contractor since 2021.
“Premium had one of the lower costs for managing the program, they had a great reputation,” he said. “They weren’t high pressure, and they had a lot of experience. Those were the primary considerations when we were looking at companies.”
He said the company was aware of the town’s proposed changes and would set rates in accordance with council’s policies.
Carolina Beach town council voted to disallow 767 resident parking passes at oceanfront lots last month. The town stated USACE forced it to make the change to ensure federal funding for this year’s beach renourishment cycle.
CB residents Matt and Kristen Dunn criticized council for inadequate consideration of citizen feedback on parking policy at council’s Nov. 12 meeting. Matt Dunn — who ran for council in 2021 — advocated to put discussion of public input on the agenda for the town’s upcoming workshop.
“Our neighbors right down the road at Kure Beach — that’s what they’re doing and it looks very transparent,” Matt Dunn said during public comment.
KB code enforcement officer Beth White confirmed the issue will be on the agenda for the December council meeting.
“We wanted our residents to understand why [this was happening] and also for our residents to have a voice,” Oliver said at the Monday meeting. “And then at our next council meeting, if you have concerns or comments you want to make, we will have our public comment period.”
Unlike Kure Beach, CB does not sell non-resident parking passes; USACE found the policy in violation of equal parking requirements. CB council member Mike Hoffer advocated the town sell unlimited passes with discounted rates akin to Kure Beach in a Nov. 8 blog post as USACE seemed to allow the policy.
Kure Beach Mayor Oliver published a letter to citizens earlier this month explaining USACE similarly rejected the town’s policy and temporarily suspended beach renourishment funds until it came into compliance.
“You may ask why we didn’t appeal or take legal action,” Oliver wrote in the letter. “The short answer is we didn’t have the time, and it would have caused us missing the current renourishment cycle scheduled for later this year.”
CB town officials maintained the issue was caused by USACE’s recent reinterpretion of its parking requirements. Panicalli and Heglar concurred.
“[Equal access to parking] has been in the contracts, but it’s never been interpreted in the way they have this go-around,” Panicalli said. “So this is a new interpretation as far as we know. We don’t know if it’s being implemented across the country or not. We just now in our particular district, which includes Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, and ourselves.”
Port City Daily reached out to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ask if it had reinterpreted or changed enforcement of equal parking requirements since the last beach renourishment cycle any if similar parking changes would be required in WB, but did not receive a response by press.
Heglar said the town had reached an understanding with the USACE and did not believe implementing parking changes would delay the renourishment cycle. He added contractor bids for the project will open Dec. 12.
“My understanding — and I assume the rest of the council’s understanding — is that the Corps of Engineers is satisfied with our response,” he said.
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