Paid parking resumes in Carolina and Wrightsville Beaches

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Paid parking resumed in Carolina and Wrightsville Beaches on March 1 and will run until Oct. 31st.  

Rates for both beaches are $6 per hour for most parking lots, and $5 per hour for on-street parking.  

Although the extra fees may give some visitors and residents a headache, as Carolina Beach Mayor Lynn Barbee explained, those fees ultimately go to serve the community and visitors alike.  

“The maintenance on the beach walkovers, the maintenance on the bathrooms, the day-to-day cleaning of the beaches and the cleaning of the bathrooms, the showers that we provide, that’s where the bulk of the parking fees go to,” Barbee said. 

Barbee noted that during peak summer traffic, around 30,000 people use public facilities at the beach every single day.