(2/12) The Town Council voted at their February 10 meeting to initiate a year-long trial period beginning in March for parking passes… to deal with a conflict of parking issues between in-town residents and merchants.
Councilman Joe Vigliotti stated at the council's February 4 work session, "Everybody knows that for years, the city has attempted to seek a solution to street parking that allows customers to patronize businesses, but also while insuring that residents living above the businesses don't deprive customers of those parking spots."
"Meters were originally installed to that end," Vigliotti stated. "However, some businesses and customers found that these meters are an inconvenience."
The councilman said, "In November 2019 the city adopted a holiday parking-pass program which consisted of two primary aspects. First of all, that parking on the weekends would be free for anybody, and that (secondly) during the weeks, customers of businesses could receive a parking pass from the businesses, and they would be allowed to park in front of meters
without having to pay the meters."
In January (2020), at the conclusion of the permit program, Vigliotti and Economic Developer Nancy McCormick reached out to a number of businesses to see what they had experienced by using these parking passes.
Feedback received, he said, included, "the customers stayed longer in the stores, (the) customers shopped more, (and) customers and businesses both complemented the convenience of the idea, and that the idea was found to be creative, innovative and, above all, practical and useful by both businesses and customers," the councilman told the Council.
Vigliotti said that all of the businesses that did respond "called it a success... and asked for it to be made permanent."
"Because of the positive outcome of the holiday program… what I do want to propose is that we take this seven-month trial and do it over the course of a year... between March of this year and March 2021," he said.
If the program is successful in March 2021, the councilman stated, "We could certainly move to make it permanent. If it is unsuccessful… just simply phase it out. If the trial at any point becomes severely problematic, we can go ahead and alter it or end it as we need to."
The Council approved Vigliotti's recommendation at their February 10 meeting unanimously.
