WILDWOOD The city has spent the last few years finding ways to make better use, and a profit, from its expansive beaches.

Kite-flying festivals, soccer tournaments, beach concerts and the Race of Gentlemen, an antique-car race that pays homage to Americas hot-rod history, are just a few ways the city has focused on marketing its beaches.

Soon, the city will add on-beach parking to the list.

Owners of four-wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles will have to wait a couple of more weeks before they can park on the beaches at Baker Avenue.

City commissioners unanimously adopted an ordinance to allow parking on the wide expanse, but implementation has been delayed due to bad weather and the need to make improvements to the beach access ramp at Baker Avenue, Commissioner Pete Byron said.

We cant control Mother Nature, Byron said. The Baker Avenue access ramp needs to be improved so that the access height is that of parking garages.

Once the upgrades are complete, visitors will be able to park on the sand, creating more spaces as well as revenue for the city, Byron said.

Brigantine started parking on the beach in 2007 and in 2014 made more than $600,000, Byron said. And for taxpayers, that would equal approximately 4 cents in tax savings per $100 of assessed value.

The daily cost for parking in Wildwood will be $10, with special-event parking costing $20. It will be limited to four-wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles, Byron said.

For a city that doesnt charge visitors to use its beaches, Wildwood has come up with some interesting ways to generate revenue. Besides the monster trucks, motorcycle races and concerts, the city has tried to turn some of its sand into a park for recreational vehicles. Not all the ideas were hits, but the city keeps trying.

At more than a quarter-mile wide at some points, theres ample room to experiment.

The city has made other improvements to its beaches, including moving the dog beach from Juniper Avenue to Glenwood Avenue, where it has a larger run area with toys and obstacles, Byron said.

Frankly, we outgrew the park, which took off more rapidly than I can imagine, and we need a bigger space, Byron said. So we moved it a couple of blocks south between Glenwood and Maple avenues.

If you like what you see today, wait until tomorrow, Byron added. We have something special in the works and hope to have it sometime mid-August.

The city also approved a surfing beach at Andrews Avenue.

The opportunity presented itself, and we wanted to bring more than surf lessons to the beach, said Tim Kaye, operator of Surftopia on the Andrews Avenue beach. The joy of surfing brings together so many different things and experiences, and we wanted to be able to share that here in Wildwood.

Surftopia offers surfboards and paddleboards for rent as well as food and refreshments.

Wildwood is a world-class beach, and we should have had a surfing beach a long time ago, Byron said.

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