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Finding a parking spot in Cape May may gradually become easier as the city expands a program that opens privately owned lots to the public, creating dozens of new spaces for beachgoers and visitors.
City officials launched the initiative to ease a longstanding parking shortage during the busy summer season. Under agreements with participating property owners, the city manages parking in private lots and shares a portion of the revenue with the owners.
The program began with lots owned by Cape Island Baptist Church and Ocean View Restaurant and has since expanded. After Kyle Gagliardi purchased Swain’s Hardware Store on Jackson Street, the city approached him about joining the effort.
Knowing beachgoers were already using the Swain’s lot to avoid downtown meters, officials saw an opportunity to formalize the arrangement.
Gagliardi, a local business owner familiar with the shore’s chronic parking shortage, agreed to make nine spaces in front of his store available to the public.
“It felt like it was a value add to the city, which if the city is doing good, that means I’m doing good,” Gagliardi said. “An extra nine parking spots isn’t going to change the world or anything like that, but if there’s ever a way I can help the city out, well then I’m going to do it.”
For Cape May officials, turning to the private sector is part of a broader effort to reduce parking conflicts and improve traffic flow. Through the program, Cape May now has about 60 additional parking spaces across five private lots, City Manager Paul Dietrich said.
Cape May’s city council voted Tuesday to streamline the process for adding new commercial spaces to the program.
The ordinance establishes a single policy governing the partnerships, eliminating the need for a separate ordinance each time a business joins the program, Dietrich said.
“It’s been a creative way to find not a full solution but a partial solution to help create more public parking spaces,” Dietrich said.
The move comes as Cape May continues looking for ways to ease parking shortages that have long frustrated residents and visitors during the busy summer season.
Last year, the city increased parking rates citywide, raising the cost of metered spaces to at least $2 per hour.
When the pilot kicked off in 2025, the city found unique solutions for each property, Dietrich said.
The church occasionally opened its parking lot to the public, while the restaurant’s parking spaces became available in the late afternoon after the eatery closed at 2 p.m.
As of early July, Swain’s lot and two others have been added to the city’s roster of public spaces. Meanwhile, other businesses have expressed interest in joining the program, Dietrich said.
At the church, 22 of the 34 spaces in its rear parking lot were open during the day last year, said John Spriggs, chairman of Cape Island’s board of trustees.
“I know parking can be a real frustration when there’s not enough parking, especially on weekends,” Spriggs said.
Like other public parking spaces in Cape May, the spots in participating private lots are managed through ParkMobile, the smartphone parking app used widely across New Jersey.
Under the ordinance approved Tuesday, the spaces are available for $2 per hour from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily between April 1 and Oct. 31 unless they are reserved for business use during operating hours.
The additional spaces provide another source of parking revenue for the city, which collected about $1.05 million from parking meters during the summer of 2025, according to budget records.
Parking fees have become an increasingly important source of revenue for shore towns. More than 20 Jersey Shore municipalities operate metered parking and collectively generate about $23 million in fees, according to an NJ.com review of municipal data.
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