Report Endorses Paid Parking Downtown

CHATHAM – An ad hoc committee and the Cape Cod Commission agree: the focus on alleviating parking congestion in downtown Chatham is on making better use of the existing spaces, implementing paid parking in downtown lots and time restrictions for parking along Main Street, coupled with clearer signs and pedestrian improvements. 
But with traffic congestion seemingly worse than ever, a couple of members of the parking solutions working group floated a novel idea: allowing parking only on one side of Main Street.
The working group met last week to review a long-awaited draft report from the Cape Cod Commission that made a series of recommendations designed to ease the parking crunch. A key recommendation is to implement paid parking in the parking lots closest to downtown, with free parking in satellite lots that are within walking distance. The report also recommended imposing time restrictions for on-street parking, or the use of paid parking kiosks for those parking on Main Street. Other recommendations included standardized, clear signs, designating parking for downtown employees, pedestrian improvements, and the use of a downtown shuttle service. 
The working group members praised the commission for its work and generally supported recommending that the select board consider implementing many of the ideas, though there was less support for requiring people to pay for on-street parking.
Working group member Dean Nicastro, chair of the select board, said if the improved signs, paid parking lots and downtown shuttle come to fruition, “it will be a tremendous benefit to the town.” He was less enthusiastic with the recommendation that the town create more electric vehicle charging stations downtown, saying he would rather that those spaces be kept outside of the immediate downtown area.
Also favoring paid parking in downtown lots was working group member Joan Craig, who said some businesses previously complained that it was unfair to charge people only to use the Eldredge Garage lot on the east end.
“I think we heard from some of the retailers that if it’s going to be one lot, it should be all of them,” she said. And with regard to another Cape Cod Commission recommendation to include loading zones on Main Street to ease traffic blockages, Craig said they should be evenly spaced through the area. “In fairness to everyone, have it on both sides of the street,” she said.
Working group member Jeffrey Dykens, also a select board member, said he has always favored expanding paid parking. 
“We’ve been leaving a million bucks or more on the table,” he said. 
Dykens noted that he’s been downtown several times recently and encountered unusual amounts of traffic congestion.
“I would almost argue — and I’m not going to do this now — but I have the notion of parking on one side of the street, or no downtown parking at all, and just making a walking street like in Europe. I mean, it was that congested,” Dykens mused. “That’s way too controversial and crazy, but it would really be kind of cool,” he said.
Working group member Angela Bucar, executive director of the chamber of commerce and merchants’ association, didn’t find the idea outlandish.
“I do agree that there should just be one-sided parking and then allow for pedestrians to be on the other,” she said. Doing so would allow for safer bicycle traffic downtown, Bucar added. Traffic congestion is “a high season issue that we are all working through,” she noted. In addition to the one-sided parking, Bucar suggested creating “VIP lots” that are centrally located downtown where paid parking would be appropriate. 
“The congestion is — it’s just incredible,” she said. “From the retailers’ perspective and certainly from the chamber perspective, if we get clogged up downtown, people are turning away and saying, ‘I’m not going there.’ And that’s what we don’t want to happen,” Bucar said.
“It’s choking to live downtown right now, and it has been for the last several years,” said Nicastro, who lives near the main business district. But he stopped short of endorsing the idea of limiting parking to one side of Main Street. “I’m not the spokesperson for the business community, but I don’t know how that benefits the people that live on the side of the street where pedestrians are not walking,” he said. “I like the idea of a pedestrian zone, but I don’t know if that’s workable. It’s basically a pedestrian zone right now because traffic doesn’t move.”
The Cape Cod Commission’s draft recommendations, which did not include the one-sided parking concept, will be summarized in a staff memo that will be sent to the select board for consideration.