A parking ticket for $25, more than double the current fine. A full-dollar increase for hourly parking rates. Enforcement during evening hours and on Saturdays.
These changes could be coming to Concord.
Along with a multimillion-dollar capital improvement plan, more staff and changes for garage leases, all are the products of a long-awaited study to save the soon-to-be bankrupt parking system. Matt Walsh, the city’s director of redevelopment, downtown services and special projects, delivered the sweeping package of recommendations to a city committee Monday.
“It would be great to have a parking system that is financially independent, if that’s what the council and community want, but would also make as many people happy as much of the time as we can,” Walsh said. “Those might be competing interests. But that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The parking fund was designed to sustain itself without taxpayer dollars. Rather, meter fees and leased spaces are supposed to cover most operating costs for the department. But that fund has been dwindling, and it is on track to end fiscal year 2017 in the red by $130,000. So in 2014, Concord hired consultant firms Nelson/Nygaard and Desman Associates to study the system and make recommendations. The city hosted several public meetings for residents and circulated an online survey; the consultants also measured usage in the downtown core.
Concord’s downtown includes more than 3,700 public parking spaces in garages, surface lots and streets. About two-thirds of those spaces are regulated, and about 770 are metered. The study showed usage is below capacity, especially in parking garages.
“It’s not a supply problem,” Walsh said. “It’s an access problem. It’s how the spaces are used and how people can use them.”
The study, however, has been long delayed as those firms struggled with the fund’s financial outlook. Walsh’s presentation to the parking committee was a marriage of consultant and city staff recommendations. The suggestions covered the entire operation, from rates and fines to leases and capital expenditures.
For Main Street, rates would increase from 75 cents an hour to $1.75. The two-hour time limit would double to four hours. Meters would be extended south to Perley Street.
On side streets, the hourly price would increase to $1.25 an hour. The streets closest to Main Street would also have a four-hour time limit, but all others would have none.
Garages and surface lots would charge 75 cents an hour with no time limit.
Currently, enforcement runs Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Under the proposed system, rates would apply Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. That’s a nearly 50 percent increase in the hours of enforcement, compared with the existing system.
By 2019, Concord would also incorporate a permit system with three options. More expensive plans would grant exclusive access to a parking space, while the cheapest option would allow daytime access to a group of spots. Residents from White Park to the South End would buy permits to park on the street during business hours.
Every type of parking citation would become more expensive. An expired meter would cost $25, up from $10. Parking over the lines would trigger a $25 ticket as well, an increase from $5.
The city would also spend $10.3 million in capital investments over the next 10 years, which would catch up to neglected maintenance in the garages and surface lots. Walsh also proposed technology improvements like smart meters and pay-by-phone apps.
Many of the changes are meant to right the parking fund. But Walsh said he also hopes to motivate drivers to use the garages and prevent them from monopolizing highly coveted spaces on Main Street.
“Our current rate structure, it’s not robust enough to drive parking behaviors,” Walsh said.
The parking committee will continue to meet through the summer and fall to hammer out changes; eventually, the group will make a recommendation to the Concord city council. The councilors who serve on the committee, however, signaled a reluctance to swallow such dramatic changes all at once.
“I’m trying to square the goals you’re trying to achieve,” Mayor Jim Bouley said. “Some I understand. Some I need some explanation.”
Parking committee meetings are open to the public. Any changes would also require at least at least one public hearing and approval from the council.
“There’s going to be a period of reaction where people are not going to be happy, and you’re going to have to let that ride out for a while,” Walsh said.
The mayor let out a short, hollow laugh.
“That’s probably the understatement of the year,” Walsh added.
The full study and recommendations will be available online by Wednesday. For more information, visit concordnh.gov.