EASTHAMPTON — The city has temporarily opened 25 new parking spots off Cottage Street in an effort to provide easy access to the city’s business hub and state-designated Cultural District.
The public parking spaces, located at the Maple Street School near the intersection of Maple and Chapel streets, will remain in place for the summer, with businesses newly allowed to reopen at full capacity. The lot is a few hundred feet from Cottage Street, home to many of the city’s restaurants, shops and other businesses.
An announcement from the mayor’s office referred to the new parking spaces as one of two recent “low-cost improvements (that) will have a positive effect on visitors seeking to visit Cottage Street businesses.”
The city also installed four LED lights at the back of City Hall to “help make the approximately 95 spaces of public parking safer for those visiting our downtown,” according to the announcement. Easthampton received funding from the state Department of Transportation to install the lights.
The mayor’s announcement said the parking reflects that “it’s more important than ever that the city take steps to support our existing businesses on Cottage Street recover from the pandemic.”
Heidi Phillips, a server at Kisara Japanese & Korean Restaurant, said she thinks the added parking will help bring more people into Cottage Street businesses and provide better parking options for those who work there.
“It’s a little difficult to find parking on the weekends,” Phillips said of the Cottage Street area. “It’s not impossible, but as somebody who works, it’s kind of hard because of all the one-hour parking spaces, so I think the new temporary parking spots are going to be a great addition.”
Additional parking options could also “motivate more people to come out to Cottage Street so they don’t have to worry about parking and only having an hour at a time,” she said.
The city will formally end its state of emergency, which had been in place since March 2020, on July 1. In late April, the city lifted its mask mandate and nearly all COVID-19 restrictions following guidance from the state government.
Easthampton Department of Public Works crews recently repainted the new parking spaces and made other improvements to the pavement.
The idea for short-term parking spaces at the Maple Street School was outlined in the city’s Downtown Strategic Plan, which also suggests other ways to increase public parking in downtown Easthampton. Additional plans include creating more parking spaces on side streets, making shared parking arrangements, and updating zoning to allow or encourage shared parking.
The parking spaces will remain open to the public until the fall.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.