Parking meters coming to downtown White River Junction
Published: 10-04-2024 5:01 PM
Modified: 10-04-2024 5:37 PM |
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — For the first time since the spring of 1975, parking meters are set to cast shadows over downtown streets after the Hartford Selectboard voted to bring them back, albeit in a more modern form.
In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the board approved the use of about $145,000 of the town’s American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds for the purchase and installation of 16 fee-collecting parking kiosks throughout downtown. The kiosks will serve a total of 211 parking spaces, both on-street and in the town square parking lot, located across from the Hotel Coolidge.
The 189 spaces in the South Main Street lot by the VFW building will remain un-metered.
The purpose of the metering program is to create more turnover in parking spaces downtown, making it easier for shoppers and visitors to find parking.
“A parking meter can encourage folks to move their vehicles more often, thus allowing others to make use of limited parking spaces,” Hartford Town Manager John Haverstock said by email Wednesday.
Most downtown parking spaces currently have a two-hour time limit, except for the South Main Street lot, where there is no limit. But “without meters, there is no enforcement,” town planner Matt Osborn sad by email Thursday. As a result of the lack of enforcement, people often park their cars in on-street municipal spaces for well over two hours.
Parking fees have not yet been determined. The Selectboard “will be doing more outreach,” before setting rates, likely in the spring or early summer, Haverstock said Thursday.
The kiosks will be purchased from San Diego-based ISP Group, and will accept coins, cash and credit cards, and will be compatible with number of smartphone apps.
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They will be located along North Main Street, Railroad Row, Prospect Street, and along South Main Street roughly to Big Fatty’s BBQ. They will also be placed on Gates Street between South Main and Currier, and Currier Street between Gates and North Main.
They are the same meters that are used in Hanover, Hartford Planning Director Lori Hirshfield said at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Hanover has over 500 municipal parking spaces, and the metering and enforcement system generates more than $1 million in annual revenue from permits, meter payments and fines, according to the 2023 Town Report.
Town officials in Hartford did not provide an estimate of potential revenue form the kiosks, but “expect that meter revenues will be sufficient to employ an enforcement staffer within the Hartford Police Department, who would also be able to perform other community outreach in the area,” Haverstock said.
Whether to charge a fee for parking has been a contentious issue in Hartford, almost since meters were first adopted in 1949, according to the Valley News archives. They survived votes on their fate at the 1971 and 1972 Town Meetings and were finally nixed by voters in 1975. That result elicited such a backlash that a special meeting was called six months later, but voters upheld their banishment of the meters for a second time that year. The coin-operated sentinels have been absent from White River Junction ever since.
In 2020, Hartford voters rejected the use of $160,000 of a local option tax to purchase parking meters, with some residents understanding their vote to be a statement in opposition to meters, not just the funding source.
“Parking meters were on the ballot previously and voted down by the voting majority,” Hartford resident Heidi Duto said by email Wednesday.
Selectboard Chairman Mike Hoyt acknowledged the message sent to the town by voters in 2020 might be unclear.
“You can certainly argue whether the no vote by the Town was actually in regard to using local option tax money for the meters, or whether it is best understood as saying no to the concept of parking meters in general,” Selectboard Chairman Mike Hoyt said by email last month.
The Selectboard will adopt a parking ordinance at a regular meeting within in the next few months, and the public will have the opportunity to offer input during the creation of the ordinance, Hirshfield said.
The plan is to have the kiosks installed by the spring or summer of 2025.
“We recognize this is a big change,” Hirshfield said. “We will be providing extensive public information and outreach about the new meter system well in advance of installation.”
Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.