Northampton is smartly tweaking its downtown parking rules just in time for the holiday season. The changes allow for longer parking in the choicest spaces, in exchange for an increased fee that will provide a modest boost in parking revenue for the city.
Under the plan supported unanimously by the City Council on Thursday, motorists would be allowed to park for up to two hours in spaces along Main and South streets. Parking there now is limited to one hour. The parking fee for spaces on Main Street, but not South Street, would increase from 75 cents to $1 per hour. The City Council is expected to give final approval Nov. 3 to the changes, which would take effect soon after.
Mayor David Narkewicz proposed these adjustments as part of a larger plan to improve downtown parking, responding to concerns raised by merchants and adopting recommendations in a consultant’s report last year. “These are the first of several changes I’ll be submitting over the next several months,” Narkewicz said Thursday. “We are making these ones first primarily because I want these in place for the holiday season.”
Though Narkewicz said that the changes are not driven by a desire to boost city revenue, he estimates that the 33 percent increase in parking fees on Main Street will produce an added $56,000 annually.
Doubling the legal time for parking at a meter on Main and South streets answers a long-held concern by business owners that an hour isn’t enough time to do much shopping or dining. That was reinforced by the findings of Walker Parking Consultants in its April 2015 report, which found that motorists often were parking on Main Street for more than one hour.
“On Main Street, we estimate that at the peak daytime hour, upwards of 23 percent of spaces may be in use by cars staying three or more hours, which limits turnover for visitors,” the consultants wrote.
The study also found that people were more concerned about finding a space close to their destination than its cost. The report recommended that rather than “a large, sudden rate increase,” the city adopt “consistent small increases so that over time, a healthy differential is created between Main Street and less convenient resources,” with the goal of eventually bringing the fee to $1.50 an hour.
The city earlier this year offered an incentive for consumers to use the E. J. Gare Parking Garage behind Thornes Marketplace, where the first hour always has been free. Merchants now may purchase from the city validation stickers in amounts of one, two or three hours to give their customers additional free parking in the garage.
And Narkewicz plans next year to make it more convenient for people to pay for parking in municipal lots by upgrading kiosks to allow payment by credit card and a downloadable mobile phone application.
Meanwhile, the City Council gave a gift to consumers and merchants Thursday when it revived a city tradition that had lapsed by declaring four days of free parking on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s weekends. Those dates are Nov. 25 and 26 and Dec. 24 and 31.