Stone Harbor, NJ Has 257% Increase In Parking Fines Collected

Parking at the Jersey Shore has been a controversial and debated topic for many years, so much so that when someone tries to propose any changes, there is intense debate on both sides.  Now one South Jersey town is reaping the financial benefits from the latest Paid Parking fiasco.

Before the 2023 Summer Season, the popular South Jersey Coastal Community of Stone Harbor decided to eliminate Parking Meters and Kiosks in favor of a Virtual Paid Parking System.  But they did not publicize this change in a way that the general public would be aware of which led to the rollercoaster summer for the Jersey Shore Community.

As we wrote about over the last several months, Stone Harbor saw a massive increase in parking tickets issued when there were 564 Paid Parking Violations in May of this year, a wild increase from just 33 in May of 2023.  The situation did not get better when the small Coastal Community had a 62 percent increase in Parking Violations issued in June, totaling 915 because many visitors to town were unaware of the transition to the Virtual Paid Parking System.

Even though the ParkMobile App is utilized by many Cape May County towns and by neighboring municipalities, Stone Harbor City Council Meetings such as the one on July 3rd displayed a lack of working knowledge of how other towns made this transition without drawing the negative attention that they were dealing with.  The same July 3rd City Council Meeting also generated some extra political drama which led City Council Members to vote to censure the Mayor of Stone Habor.

Despite how much city officials tried to spin the issue as being a misunderstanding of the situation or a misinterpretation of the numbers, no one can ignore the reality that Stone Harbor had a 257% increase in Parking Fines collected this year.  From May 1st to October 31st, the South Jersey community collected $110,015 from Parking Violations, thanks in large part to their mishandling of the switch from Parking Meters and Kiosks to Virtual Paid Parking.

For reference, Stone Harbor collected $30,840 in Parking Fines last year. So was all of this just a charade to get more money collected for the town or did they legitimately mismanage the whole Paid Parking Situation this year?  We may never know for sure.