New parking technology headed to Rehoboth Beach

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. – The pay for parking season has officially kicked off in Rehoboth Beach with one major change: a new license plate recognition technology.

“It pushes longer term parking hopefully out further away from the central business district Rehoboth Avenue, which as we know gets very crowded,” said the City of Rehoboth Beach Projects Coordinator, Evan Miller.

The new technology allows parking enforcement to check if visitors have stayed over their time limit from their cars making it easier and more time efficient.

“Because parking is such high demand in the City of Rehoboth Beach having a way to enforce that and put the resources back into technology that improves the overall enforcement is beneficial,” said Miller.

But, those are not the only changes coming.

City officials said there are new requirements for drivers in the area this summer, which includes people parking with the front of their car facing away from the street.

“This summer we’re going to start by issuing warnings with every visitor and any resident that does violate the head in parking requirement will be first given one warning,” said Miller, “After that they will be issued a citation.”

On top of that the cost of some meters will increase from two dollars to three dollars an hour, which does worry some business owners.

“My concern is always that we don’t want to out price it because people don’t want to spend a fortune just for parking,” said Dean Shuttleworth, the co-owner of Thrashers Fries.

“We need some of that money in their pockets to spend on our local businesses,” said Shuttleworth.

Local business owners said despite the changes they are sure visitors will continue to enjoy what the City of Rehoboth Beach has to offer.