By Danielle Seat | September 22, 2020 at 5:19 AM EDT - Updated September 22 at 9:01 AM
ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - Isle of Palms leaders will vote Tuesday to permanently eliminate parking on a portion of one of the cityâs main thoroughfares.
Mayor Jimmy Carroll says city council will consider permanently banning all land-side parking on Palm Boulevard between 22nd and 40th Avenues.
That would remove between 100 and 150 parking spots.
The ordinance to permanently eliminate parking on the land side of Palm Boulevard was first approved by the Isle of Palms Public Safety Committee on Sept. 14. Committee members supported the motion, which was initially put into place to limit the number of people on the beach during the pandemic.
About 4,200 people live on Isle of Palms,but Carroll has said that number can quadruple on weekends, which leads to traffic backups on Palm Boulevard. Those backups can delay public safety personnel in emergencies.
âYou get these traffic pile ups. And if somebody had an emergency, and EMS or a fire truck with our first responders had to fly down Palm Blvd, because every second counts, they get stuck in the traffic,â Carroll said.
The city is required by law to provide 48 parking spots per mile of beach, an amount Carroll says it exceeds by more than 500%.
Council members will vote on the final approval of the ordinance at Tuesdayâs council meeting. If it passes, it will ultimately be a permanent extension of the current emergency ordinance.
IOP Council Member Jimmy Ward says this ordinance was also cleared through DHEC.
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