SOUTHPORT — Business owners in one Brunswick County town are voicing their disapproval of the board of aldermen’s consideration of paid parking in Southport, following a presentation from parking vendor Otto Connect earlier this month. The aldermen will consider tabling discussion further at this week’s meeting.
READ MORE: Southport aldermen consider potential paid parking program
Pamela Sexton, who has owned the gift shop Cattail Cottage for 17 years, fears if paid parking were to be implemented in Southport, downtown commerce would face a decrease in foot traffic.
“It’s definitely not business-friendly,” she said. “In my opinion it will deter people from coming to Southport.”
After speaking with several other owners in the area, Sexton decided to create a petition — currently with 6,575 signatures — urging community members to sign against the paid parking consideration in Southport. While shocked by the number of signatures garnered from the petition, which went live on June 7, she believes it reflects how the community feels about the proposition.
“It’s not just us as business owners, there are residents here and visitors that are against this,” she said.
Dondi Ramsey, a resident but also the owner of home goods store Talefeathers, echoed similar concerns. She said if the idea were to move forward she believes it would ruin her business.
“It’s going to destroy us. Most people that I’ve talked to that have come into my shop said, ‘We’re not coming to Southport,’” she said. “It’s insulting to ask someone to already pay a premium price [while shopping for goods] and then to pay to park on the streets.”
In addition to the petition, several business owners are sharing the cost of a full-page ad to place in The State Port Pilot to urge readers to share their disapproval.
Alderman Marc Spencer first brought the paid parking idea to the board and said the program is the city’s last option to funnel in another stream of revenue beyond property and sales taxes. As Port City Daily reported first last week, the city is projecting a $1.4 million budget deficit this fiscal year and would have a projected shortfall of $281,000 in the 2026-2027 fiscal year. These gaps are due to high inflation, increasing costs for competitive salaries and benefits, and funds that were lost when the city transferred its water and sewer control over to the county last year.
Paid parking could help cover future infrastructure projects, such as road improvement and public safety projects, Spencer added. Though it would need approval from the North Carolina General Assembly to fund anything other than the parking program.
Spencer said while he hears business owner’s concerns, he believes that surrounding areas should help pay for their use of services.
“I have probably been the one that has stuck to this the hardest and said what most people are afraid to: that we’re tired of paying everybody else’s bills,” he said. “We have confused friendly and free.”
However, some aldermen said during the last meeting they didn’t believe in charging residents or business owners if a parking program went into effect. City manager Noah Saldo clarified the idea is in the early stages of consideration, with no vote scheduled yet, nor other parking vendors being vetted at present moment.
“I think there’s broad consensus from the board to make sure that it doesn’t harm the residents or businesses,” he said. “We’ll reassess what parameters we might want to put around it or if we want to proceed at all.”
According to Sexton, she would oppose the implementation regardless.
“That doesn’t help us at all,” she said. “A lot of us have part-time employees. We can’t expect our part-time employees to pay the rate that they’ve thrown around to come to work.”
Alderman Frank Lai said he is still trying to figure out where he stands on the paid parking issue. From what was presented by Otto Connect at the board’s June 2 meeting, he admitted to not being “wild” about the program. Lai wants to look more heavily into it but understands its appeal.
“We desperately need the revenue. We have no way to get revenue other than taxes,” Lai said.
Fortunately, the city isn’t facing an escalation in taxes this year, but Lai said it may be coming down the road should more revenue not be generated.
“In order to fund all the stuff that we need, money’s gotta come from somewhere,” he said.
Lai also understands the community’s concern and will take comments from the public into consideration as the board discusses it in the future: “It’s the only way you can do business as far as I’m concerned.
In addition to local business owners, the Southport-Oak Island Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to city officials in opposition:
“We believe there are better ways to increase revenue through policies that support growth and investment, rather than new fees that deter activity and discourage foot traffic,” the letter indicated. “We are eager to work collaboratively to explore practical, business-friendly strategies for strengthening city revenues while maintaining a thriving local economy.”
The chamber plans to meet with officials, including city manager Saldo, sometime soon to discuss issues as expressed by the chamber’s members.
In addition to the chamber’s meeting, its representatives and several business owners plan on attending the board of aldermen meeting Thursday, June 12. Paid parking was not originally going to be on the agenda but, according to Saldo, it has been added as of Tuesday, with the board taking a vote to table paid parking and not pursue it currently.
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