WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — The 2025 parking season in Wrightsville Beach is kicking off with several changes, including raising daily rates and finding a middle ground to keep all oceanfront lifeguard spaces.
READ MORE: Daily rate increase, fate of lifeguard spaces discussed in WB parking meeting
At the Jan. 9 board of aldermen meeting, staff recommended several changes to the town’s parking program, operated through independent contractor Pivot Parking. Pivot also manages parking programs in Wilmington, Carolina Beach, and Surf City.
In a unanimous vote, a motion passed to implement the recommended changes including keeping lifeguard spots, prolonging the violation appeal period, and eliminating several spots deemed dangerous. However, a second motion to raise daily parking rates by $5 was disputed by Aldermen Jeff DeGroote and Zeke Partin, but passed 3-2.
Daily parking rates for premium spots will go from $30 to $35 and regular spots from $25 to $30 in the 2025 season; hourly rates will remain the same, $5 for regular parking and $6 for premium. Paid parking in Wrightsville Beach is in effect March through October.
Of the island’s 1,800 parking spots, 541 are premium spots, generally in ocean-front lots with beach access.
“This isn’t a strong recommendation from staff, but it will assist us in generating new revenues,” Town Manager Haynes Brigman said during the meeting.
DeGroote stated several business owners reached out to him to express the negative impacts raising daily rates would have on their operations.
“It’s already hard enough to operate down here, seeing that we’re a very seasonal place,” he said.
Port City Daily first published the potential for daily rate increases from the aldermen’s Dec. 2 special meeting, with recommendations given to the board by Pivot. Pivot CEO Scott Diggs suggested the rates increase to keep up with what Kure and Carolina beaches charge.
Partin said she couldn’t get behind raising daily parking prices — “just because Ocean Isle or wherever are a little bit higher than we are.”
“I don’t think that’s the right way to necessarily govern it,” DeGroote agreed.
Mayor Daryl Mills countered that increasing rates would incentivize higher turnover, especially as the hourly rates remain unaffected.
Brigman estimated it will cost the town roughly $18,000 to $20,000, per the agenda packet, to update the signs with the new rates, but said the revenue brought in by the new rates would more than cover the cost.
Also discussed at the Dec. 2 special meeting was the fate of lifeguard spaces. The option to remove the 11 beachfront spaces designated for lifeguards and relocate them to other areas of the town was presented by Pivot. It was proposed to flip the beachfront spots into premium paid spaces, as they are already located within ocean-front, premium lots.
At Thursday’s meeting, staff recommended against Pivot’s proposal and instead offered a middle ground: lifeguard spots will remain where they are during lifeguard season (Memorial through Labor Day) and be opened up to the public thereafter. As paid parking season runs from March 1 to October 31, this gives the town approximately four months of revenue from the premium spots after lifeguard season.
Brigman also pointed out, though lifeguards are not staffed during off season, they do utilize the spots for year-round training. To compensate for the spots becoming public access, staff recommended issuing passes for lifeguards on their training days to give them free access to the spots, to which the board agreed
There will also be five parking spaces removed from Wrightsville Beach, as they were deemed unsafe at December’s special meeting. In Thursday’s meeting, Brigman said some were near pedestrian right-of-ways, like crosswalks, and others were in “tight quarters” down narrow streets and alleys.
Brigman wrote to Port City Daily in an email the spots are located near the intersection of North Lumina and Parmele Blvd., at crosswalks near North Lumina and East Asheville Street, and at crosswalks new North Lumina and Beach Access #9. He also said they are considering removing a few other spaces on Waynick Blvd.
Also passed unanimously was a motion to delay implementation of a fixed camera enforcement system. The service is a part of Pivot Parking’s increasing technology — “AI is steering the parking business,” Pivot CEO Scott Diggs said at the December meeting. The system includes placing cameras, equipped with license plate recognition technology, at a lot’s designated entry and exit points. The cameras will be able to compare plates with payment and timestamp data to aid in issuing citations.
Last year, Wrightsville Beach invested $90,000 in a new parking enforcement vehicle with a license plate recognition system that scans plates on parked cars and determines if the vehicle has paid to park or if its time has expired. The technology aids Pivot’s enforcement employees with issuing citations. As this was implemented in late 2024 and only operational during the month of September, Brigman suggested giving the technology an entire parking season before deciding on more new tech.
For parking violations, the board voted to amend its ordinance for violations to be appealed up to five days instead of the current three-day period.
“Oftentimes that three-day appeal period is not sufficient enough for them to get home or get back to their daily life and pay attention to the citation,” Brigman said. “I think that’s a good customer service tool that we can maybe satisfy some of the complaints that we’ve received.”
The changes are effective immediately and paid parking will be back in action beginning March 1.
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