Crushers Parking/Garbage Area

Idea:

Plant a natural wall or a fence to separate the parking lot/garbage area of Crushers from the sidewalk along Lake. This will discourage cars from turning around in that lot (which is mostly what the lot is used for when the restaurant is closed), make the street more attractive for driving into town and walking past and most importantly be safer for pedestrians walking along the sidewalk/parking, especially little ones who can now easily dart between parked cars. Isn’t it code to separate parking from sidewalk anyway? The other restaurants (ex. Stingray pic attached) and the hotels (ex. Hotel Rehoboth pic attached) around Rehoboth have fencing or shrub buffers between sidewalk and parking lot. Why not Crushers??

Staff feedback:

Such a planting certainly could be attractive, however, it would need to be planted on the Crushers' property as the width of the sidewalk in that area cannot be reduced. Also, I shared your suggestion and comments with our code enforcement office, and they indicate that there currently is not a code that requires any type of boundary between a parking lot and sidewalk.

Our inspector added: "We do currently have a code in place regarding storage or refuse in commercial areas. § 270-27 states that in C-1, C-2 and C-3 Districts all refuse storage areas and refuse containers shall be screened from public view with an acceptable screen material, including wood, lattice, fine-mesh fencing, plantings, or other suitable material erected in conformance to all building and zoning codes... Unfortunately, the area between the sidewalk and dumpster on that property is directly behind the lot’s street access, so even if they were to build a barrier of some kind, we would still have sight of the dumpster area."

Your idea will be shared with commissioners via a monthly report. If you'd like to encourage commissioners to consider an amendment to the current code, you may want to bring this to their attention via a letter, email to the city secretary, or a presentation at a public meeting.