Seaside Plans to Ease Parking This Summer

Employees are now parking offsite which has made available more than 100 spaces and is where the valet is parking cars.

Yes, this is true. And the valet is parking the vehicles where employees usually park. Employees are parking offsite to allow more than 100 more spaces for guests at any given time.

BTW, the title for this thread seems a bit of a stretch...

It is from the title of the press release.

Sp8holly, I appreciate your enthusiasm and support of Seaside. I will certainly continue to support the merchants and Farmers Market vendors.

Professionals? more like 18 year old part time employees.

Feel sorry for the merchants. A lot of people are going to avoid Seaside in favor of other communities where they can park for free.

On the plus side, with professionals parking cars they ought to be able to get 50% more in there.

I was referring to the tendency of most visitors to use more than 1 space when parking, not praising the valets.

Not giving some stranger my keys!

You don't have to...you can still park free in Seaside as always. And even if you DID valet, it is free for two hours with a validated stamp.

Driving down 30A today, I pulled in to Seaside to grab a soft drink from Modica Market. No parking was available, with many empty spots roped off for (I presume) valet parking. Drove on down to Tom Thumb for my soft drink, where there was free parking available.

You wouldn't have been able to get into Modica Market anyway, as it was SLAMMED!

It is my understanding that the valet parking is optional, central Square parking remains available and that the plan is to alleviate parking problems during peak periods such as holidays. I hope it works. It seems to be a work in progress. I know the merchants have been very busy this week and that's a good thing.

This was a solution to a problem that did not exist. Except on some very busy nights

In order to continue to offer a positive experience for Seaside visitors and to provide a simple process for coming and going in Seaside, the town will implement an easily accessible summer parking option for guests.

For convenience, PM Valet will park Seaside customers’ vehicles for them. Visitors will be able to drive into Central Square and park on their own or have someone park their car immediately, rather than search for a parking space during heavy traffic times.The valet service option will allow visitors to spend less time parking when wanting to dine or shop during peak times.

A valet podium will be centrally located in front of the ATM Kiosk in Central Square near The Art of Simple and Sundog Books. Visitors choosing to use the valet service will receive two hours COMPLIMENTARY with a validated ticket and a merchant receipt. With no validation, the fee is only $5.00 per vehicle for the first two hours and $5.00 every two hours thereafter.

Valet services will be offered on the following dates:
· Memorial Day, May 24-27, and 4th of July week, July 4-7
· Each Wednesday in June, July and the first two Wednesdays in August
· Each weekend in June and July (Fri-Sun) and the first two weekends in August

Valet services will operate at the following times:
· Wednesday, 8 a.m. – 11 p.m.
· Friday-Sunday, 8 a.m. - Midnight
· Holidays, 8 a.m. - Midnight

Seaside will also offer extended seasonal hours, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. for dining and shopping beginning Memorial Day weekend through August 15.

This was a solution to a problem that did not exist. Except on some very busy nights I always find a space. And the one way is stupid; causes more confusion than it saves. They just need good parking management: 1. stripe all the inner spaces around the lawn so cars park properly. 2. most every night, they rope off 3 to 7 spaces for whatever is going on in the shell on stage, eliminate that and leave those spaces for cars; and 3. 10s and 20s of cars park there and then go to the beach for hours - day and night; eliminate that. Valets, rules, one-ways just create more problems.