In an effort to better manage growing concerns over resident and visitor parking on Isle of Palms, city leaders have enforced new parking rates for the annual summer season.
In an 8-1 vote on May 27, IOP City Council passed a resolution for the following rates, which will be in effect daily through Labor Day for the municipal parking lots on Pavilion Drive:
- $15 per vehicle until 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.
- $25 per vehicle until 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
- $3 per hour per vehicle from 4-8 p.m.
After Labor Day, other daily rates will apply for September and October:
- $10 per vehicle until 4 p.m.
- $3 per hour per vehicle from 4-8 p.m.
Also, the hourly rate for on-street parking spaces will be $3. A Seasonal Business Parking Permit will be available for employees of Front Beach businesses for $60. Additionally, a General Public Parking Permit will be available for weekly general public parking at the municipal parking lots at a rate of $100 per vehicle.
“This (resolution) came out of the Public Safety Committee,” said City Administrator Douglas Kerr at the May 27 council meeting. “It generates an after 4 p.m. hourly rate. It also creates 350 seasonal passes at a cost of $225.”
The new parking rates are the latest attempt in an ongoing series of efforts to accommodate an ever-growing number of island visitors. Despite any concerns city leaders and residents have over beach space, traffic or available parking spaces, Isle of Palms routinely draws 20,000 or more visitors a day during regular summer days and upward of 60,000 during the week of July Fourth.
Mayor Phillip Pounds added that while the current rates for municipal parking lots had not been adjusted for some time, the new measure would allow more flexibility for late-day visitors coming over for beach clean-up sweeps, a beach walk late in the day or dinner to pay by the hour “as opposed to a daily rate and reinstating the monthly parking pass at an increased amount of $225, limiting those to the first 350 that apply for one.”
“Seasonal monthly passes were available before for Front Beach business employees and visitors that bought them,” he said. “Front Beach business passes were always there and never taken away. However, passes for others were omitted with the change and we reinstated them at a higher rate and with a number limit.”
By L. C. Leach III
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