Ocean City looks to expand metered on-street parking

With thousands of people visiting Ocean City every year, the town is looking to make more money by getting additional parking meters.

"Obviously we have a lot of day trippers that visit Ocean City just for the day and that's great, but it costs the town government quite a bit to provide services to the beach, provide the lifeguards and pick up the trash at the end of the day," said the City Engineer Terry McGean. 

According to officials, there are over 400 spaces between 11th street and 33rd street available for new parking meters.

"We did some very preliminary calculations for what we might generate if we added that parking up to 33rd street," said McGean. 

"It's over half a million dollars a year that we would probably expect if we put paid parking in that area," McGean said. 

Officials say it might cost the city 44,000 dollars to install the meters, but a task force this summer will further explore the expansion.  

"Personally, it's not something that at this point I favor," said the Mayor of Ocean City Rick Meehan. 

"But again, it is up to the council to make those decisions, and if they can come up with a plan and gain the consensus from the community to move forward and they have more than six votes then that means that's something they can move forward," said Meehan. 

According to officials, the project is still in its early stages, and a final decision to add more parking meters has not yet been made.