Select Board Passes On Paid Parking This Summer After Opposition By Downtown Merchants

CHATHAM – With merchants and others vocally opposing the idea, the select board last week abandoned a plan that would have imposed paid parking in a portion of one downtown parking lot this summer. 

 With four members present and an apparent deadlock looming, the board took no action on the plan, which would have sought a private contractor to operate valet service in the town-owned portion of the lot behind the Colonial Building near the Orpheum Theater.

 Back in September, the select board voted 3-2 to endorse the concept of paid parking at certain town-owned lots and to have staff explore the necessary technology. Community Development Director Katie Donovan said staff members considered various options.

 “We could certainly implement a kiosk or an app-based parking program, but [having] staff available for enforcement and monitoring of parking was an issue that we discussed,” she said. Staff concluded that the simplest approach would be to seek a proposal from a private company, likely the vendor that currently operates the Eldredge Garage lot, to operate paid parking in the 125 spaces at the Colonial lot. Doing so would save the town the expense of hiring additional staff for monitoring and enforcement, Donovan said.

 Under the proposal, parking would remain free in other town lots and along Main Street. Chatham taxpayers would also be able to park for free in the Colonial lot. Two towns on the Cape – Barnstable and Provincetown – charge for parking in certain municipal lots. In Hyannis, the town of Barnstable charges for a limited number of spaces around the Ocean Street Docks, taking in about $500,000 in revenue annually, using a staff of two full-time and five part-time attendants. Provincetown nets around $2.8 million from more than 1,000 parking spaces it owns in 16 lots, though it employs 26 parking attendants and 16 enforcement officers.

Board Chair Dean Nicastro said he supports exploring paid parking in Chatham. “I’m driven by the desire to bring some additional revenue to the town,” he said. A downtown resident, Nicastro said regulating parking could also help alleviate vehicle and pedestrian congestion. “The last couple of summers have been crushing,” he said. The crowds benefit downtown businesses, “but it’s not great for people who live in town who want to go downtown,” he added. “We don’t go downtown. Try to get to the library, for example. It’s very difficult.”

Board member Jeffrey Dykens said a paid parking operation would provide revenue for a small shuttle that would link downtown visitors with more remote parking lots like the one at the elementary school. As a Cape Cod Commission study revealed, Chatham doesn’t have a lack of parking, he said. “We have enough spaces, it’s just that we have to get folks from those spaces to where they want to go in town,” Dykens said. 

A downtown merchant for 25 years, board member Cory Metters said a pilot program wouldn’t provide much insight to the town, and paid parking in town lots wouldn’t alleviate parking congestion on Main Street. “It’s going to be busy in the summer and quiet in the winter,” he said. The parking problem is “nonexistent, at some level. This is more about revenue source and maybe trying to find a way to bring a shuttle service into the community,” Metters said.

Board member Stuart Smith agreed, saying it makes little sense to develop a program modeled after the Eldredge Garage operation, which raises relatively little revenue for the town. As for the other towns that charge for parking in municipal lots, “Chatham is not Hyannis. Chatham is not Provincetown,” he said, and the adjacent towns of Harwich, Dennis and Orleans don’t charge people to park in their lots. “I’m not sure what we’re accomplishing here,” Smith said.

Around a dozen residents, including a number of downtown merchants, spoke out against the plan. Gallery owner Barry Desilets said the Eldredge lot is underutilized because it is paid parking, and customers have told him they drove around for an hour looking for a free space instead. During that time, they were adding to traffic congestion, Desilets said. 

 “I think if you’re going to have paid parking, it should be in every space,” said Ashley Bilodeau of All Points Beautiful. Free parking is part of the town’s allure, she added. “One of the gifts of Chatham is that we’re welcoming,” she said.

 “I think a lot of people, when they find out they have to pay to park in Chatham, they’ll go to Harwich Port or they’ll go to Orleans, which has free parking,” said Sharon Hayes of Yankee Ingenuity. “I think it’s a two-month problem.”

Downtown property owner David Oppenheim said merchants uniformly oppose paid parking. “I think we should stop talking about this,” he said. It’s a fallacy to try and reduce congestion downtown during the summer, he added. “The day there is not congestion in downtown Chatham is the day our businesses are not going to be doing well,” Oppenheim said.

Also speaking was the Rev. Jennifer Zogg of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, who said the church has no spaces of its own, and people utilize the Colonial lot to attend worship services, weddings, funerals and AA meetings. “Are people who are patronizing our food pantry going to have to pay to come and pick up food?” she asked.

Further complicating matters at the Colonial lot is the fact that some of the spaces are privately owned, and they are directly adjacent to ones owned by the town. The lot also has a number of entrances, potentially making it challenging to control access.

Dykens said he appreciates the input from downtown merchants but wishes the comments had come earlier in the planning process. Having heard the concerns, he said he agrees that it is too late for a pilot program to be implemented in time for this summer.

 “However I’m not just willing to let this go,” he said. “I’m not giving up on trying to solve and alleviate the parking congestion and the congestion downtown in the summer.”

Nicastro said some have asked why the board is even considering paid parking. “This is our job as select board members, to consider ways to improve the town, to bring in revenues to the town,” he said. While Nicastro said he supports the business community, “the only time the merchants show up is when we propose something.” He challenged the chamber of commerce and merchants association to try and address the problems of parking and congestion but said he will no longer support investigating paid parking downtown.

 “I’m done with it, period,” he said. “I’ve put in as much effort on this as I can.”

Town Manager Jill Goldsmith thanked staff members for coming up with the proposal, which was fraught with nuances. 

 “If this was an easy thing to accomplish, I think the town would have done it 15 or 50 years ago,” she said.