Holden Beach residents speak on paid parking proposal at special called meeting

January 26, 2022

Celeste Smith,

HOLDEN BEACH, NC (WWAY) — More local beaches in Brunswick County are exploring the idea of paid parking. Residents packed the public assembly room at Holden Beach Town Hall, all hoping to speak their piece on the paid parking proposal.

Holden Beach Commissioners called the special meeting to discuss revisions to the paid public parking proposal that identifies 935 public parking spaces around town. For more than an hour during the meeting, residents expressed concerns about increased trash, issues with accessibility to private beach accesses, and if certain areas on the island would have significantly more parking than others.

“We are against parking on the canal streets and those highly residential areas. We think the public parking, paid parking should be reserved to the bridge area and common areas that the town owns,” said a resident during public comments.

“We have these little things, purple I think, that is put up on the island as owners, if we could covert that into some way to show that we are residents, and we don’t need to be charged for the right to park there and some of these places,” said a resident during public comments.

Commissioner Pat Kwiatkowski reminded residents that a final vote on the parking proposal is not being made at the meeting.

“This is a working meeting, for us to try to come to grips with what we want to put forward at the February BOCM as a proposal,” said Pat Kwiatkowski, commissioner.

Mayor Pro Tem Rick Smith said this meeting is crucial for the board to make a vote at its February meeting.

“Trying to figure out a way to make the parking work. Again, the visitor that come here, we cannot stop. We cannot throw a gate on the bridge to stop them from coming, so there coming, but we need to kind of guide them to where they need to be,” said Mayor Pro Tem Rick Smith.

Commissioners also discussed what revisions they believe need to made regarding zoning and what qualifies as a compact vehicle. Their next meeting is February 15.