By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — The town is once again trying to encourage downtown merchants and their employees to park in a town-owned lot on Water Street rather than taking up prime parking spaces on Main Street that could be used by shoppers.
A second public meeting in two weeks to discuss downtown parking issues drew
14 people Wednesday night, many of them merchants and/or property owners in the downtown or Greenwood business districts.
The meeting was held in the Heritage Room at the Americal Civic Center and featured a panel of Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio, Traffic Advisory Committee Chairman Lt. Steven Skory of the Wakefield Police Department, Town Council Chairman Peter May and Town Councilors Tony Longo and Paul DiNocco. DPW Director Richard Stinson was also in attendance.
Maio began by summarizing the discussion at the Sept. 20 parking meeting. He noted that there appeared to be a consensus in favor of a townwide parking time limit of two hours between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. A uniform time limit townwide was seen as easier to enforce.
Another idea that got some favorable comments at the previous meeting was the idea of 15-minute spaces in front of certain businesses with a high turnover. Maio said that attendees at the Sept. 20 meeting also agreed that better striping on some of the side streets off the square would increase available parking by creating more uniform spaces.
Maio noted that the Sept. 20 meeting also discussed the pilot program now in effect where 11 parking spaces were set aside for merchants on the outskirts of the downtown.
Attendees at the meeting two weeks ago also thought that employing a parking attendant to augment police parking enforcement would also be a worthwhile measure by the town, Maio noted.
At this week’s meeting, Maio said that improvements have been made to the town-owned gravel lot on Water Street near Omelette headquarters, which has room for about 50 cars. Further upgrades will be done in an effort to encourage merchants and their employees to park there and free up spaces in the immediate downtown area for customers.
Rada Frohlichstein of Rada Boutique on Main Street expressed concern with the lighting in that lot, especially as the days grow shorter and it gets dark earlier. She said that some of her employees had told her that they would be leery about parking there for that reason.
Town Councilor Paul DiNocco said that he will be asking the Light Department to place a light on an existing pole that will illuminate the entire lot.
Colin Young of Blanchard Awnings questioned whether there was enough parking enforcement. He said that he sees people park all day in spaces on Main street across from the Civic Center, some of whom then walk down Armory Street to catch the commuter rail into Boston.
“No one enforces anything,” he said.
Skory said that he wished the Police Department had the staffing to monitor downtown parking all day. But he said that police have to enforce parking townwide, not to mention other duties. He said that a parking attendant could help to pick up some of the enforcement downtown.
Another downtown property owner wondered whom the measures being discussed were intended to benefit – business owners, employees or customers. He agreed that parking all day was a problem, but thought that the time limits should be longer than two hours.
Maio said that the goal was to help all businesses by increasing turnover of a limited number of parking spaces. He pointed out that a lot of downtown merchants park in front of their businesses all day long.
Skory maintained that enforcement was just a short-term solution.
“All it does is displace the problem,” he said. “You need a long-term solution.”
Maio also noted that there are private lots near to the downtown where business owners can lease spaces for themselves and their employees.
Daniel Benjamin wondered about the possibility of using some spaces at the Lincoln School senior housing complex on Crescent Street as a satellite parking lot. Maio said that the property was owned by the Housing Authority, which has shown little interest in such an arrangement.
Julie Scott wondered if restricting parking on Lincoln Street to one side and creating angle parking on the other side would increase the number of available spaces, but DPW Director Stinson doubted that that would be the case.
Cyndi Newell of Greenwood Wine & Spirits suggested an idea for that part of town. She proposed keeping the two-hour limit on the southbound side of Main Street where most of the Greenwood businesses are located, but issuing stickers allowing merchants to park for longer periods on the northbound side of the street.
Heather Marino, owner of Barks & Bubbles in Greenwood, said that if people were more willing to walk a little distance it would solve a lot of problems.
“We have options,” she said. “Let’s start using them.”
