Thursday, October 1, 2026
City officials have scrapped a proposal — at least for now — to install parking meters in the city after City Manager Charles Theofan said that the initiative needed further discussion.
During the May 17 council meeting, a budget hearing, city officials removed the parking meter proposal from the 2011-12 budget, a proposal that was expected to generate $450,000 in revenue.
“It’s no secret that that’s something I’ve been interested in bringing to the council and bringing to the public,” Theofan said. “Rather than include it as a revenue item, we have taken that out so that there can be full and fair consideration perhaps at some future time.”
Several years ago, the city proposed multi-space, centrally located meters for Park Avenue between Long Beach and National boulevards where drivers would insert money and be issued printed tickets to display on their dashboards. The plan was part of a broader study examining parking in the city, and became a source of contention between those who supported the initiative and opponents, who said it would hurt businesses.
Warren Vegh, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, blasted the proposal. Vegh said that the chamber polled roughly 60 merchants after it learned that the budget included plans for parking meters, and 50 of the 52 merchants who responded said they opposed the plan and that it would hurt business and deter people from shopping.
Theofan questioned the Chamber‘s findings. “I find that strange,” he said, “because a year or so ago, when we did have a public meeting to discuss the possibility of meters, I walked into every retail store, and just across the street alone, I found that all but one of those merchants were very much in favor of having parking meters in order to get turnover, but that will be a discussion for another day.”
Rick Hoffman, a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and president of the West End Neighbors Civic Association, said that many business owners are receptive to the idea.
“Studies have proven that traffic moves better with meters — more people will come and shop in these areas,” Hoffman said. “I do not understand why you refuse to put them in the ground and make the move that we talked about two years ago and start earning that revenue.”
City Council President Thomas Sofield Jr. said that while he did not disagree “philosophically” with Hoffman, the initiative was removed from the budget because the city is not ready to move forward at this time, although he said officials would continue to pursue and discuss the issue as a potential source of revenue.
Resident Karen Adamo asked how the removal of the $450,000 in projected meter revenue would be made up for in the budget.
“We adjusted some of the expenditures to correspond,” Theofan said. He added that there is an unclassified revenue category in the budget that includes, among other items, a proposal to generate revenue through a bicycle rental program, similar to those in cities like Miami Beach.
City Councilman Mike Fagen said that while he appreciated how Theofan postponed what he called an “ambitious” meter initiative, he questioned a projected revenue increase of $700,000 to $1.2 million from parking violations.
“We are concerned about the number of tickets that are issued and the number of tickets … being dismissed in the courts, and we’re asking the courts to tighten up their procedures,” Theofan said. “We’re looking at that as being a rational number in terms of revenue. The key to this city’s financial health moving forward is going to be looking for new recurring sources of revenue, so that we can look at revenue streams other than the tax rolls to carry us as we move forward.”
After the meeting, Fagen said that he believes that “tripling” the number of parking violations is not a way to create revenue, and that residents would ultimately shoulder the burden.
Fran Adelson, a real estate agent with Prudential Douglas Elliman, also criticized what she described as a ticketing “blitz” in the area.
“My concern is, most of these tickets will be going to people who live in Long Beach,” Adelson said. “I understand that you need to raise revenue … with the blitz that’s been going on, have you hired more people? Are there more cars out there? Is there a cost for writing more tickets? I just want to know what’s going on.”
Theofan said that no additional costs were associated with issuing parking tickets, and that it’s simply a law enforcement issue. “People that are parking in two-hour areas and leaving their car all day long are doing a great disservice to our citizens who want to stop at those stores and transact their business,” he said. “A ticket blitz? We’re not doing this particular campaign for revenue purposes — we’re doing it because it’s been requested by many of the business owners and it’s the law.”
Adelson said that merchants, employees and shoppers are the ones who are being ticketed. Often, she said, employees do not have time to move their vehicles as their two-hour time limit expires. “We’re not getting a tax increase … but that means a lot of people are going to be getting tickets. It’s almost like a tax increase,” she said.
Adelson said she hopes the city comes up with other ways to generate revenue.
“Well, it’s ironic because there is, and again, it’s a discussion for another day,” Theofan said. “But the very-well-thought out plan that we did have for parking meters provided for areas where employees could park all day, where business owners could park all day, and it sought to address those very concerns.”
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