Downtown: does parking emphasis need to switch toward employee convenience?

LACONIA — "Let's get some more businesses downtown and really create a parking problem," said downtown business leader Randy Bullerwell of All My LIfe Jewelers in reaction to suggestions that city officials reconsider the allocation between two-hour and unrestricted parking in the city center. Recalling that in the 1980s he operated a store at Market Square in Portsmouth, he said although parking is almost always scarce in Portsmouth, people still flock to the city.

"I'd like to see a real parking problem in Laconia," he remarked.

Emily Gallant of SunDay's Salon & Spa, Inc. raised the issue last week in an open letter to City Manager Scott Myers, Mayor Mike Seymour and Police Chief Chris Adams and published in The Daily Sun, noting that during the past three or four weeks it has become difficult, if not impossible, for her employees to find all-day parking in the north end of downtown between 8:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. of weekdays.

Describing what she called "a great change in the business structure downtown," Gallant, who has worked there for 16 years, said that there are "far more offices and employees . . . and less merchants and customers then ever before." For years she favored restricted parking to ensure the frequent turnover of spaces for the customers and patrons of retail and service businesses. However, she repeated that there are now fewer businesses that require customer parking.

In response to Gallant's letter, Myers and Adams took a walking tour of downtown this week with an eye to parking conditions. "She raises a point," Myers said. "We should be assessing our current parking stock and trying to strike the right balance between customers, employees and tenants."

Bullerwell acknowledged that the distribution of parking spaces is a "legitimate issue", but quickly doubted that there was a solution that would satisfy everyone. He said that merchants and landlords have discussed the distribution of parking for some time without coming to a workable consensus. "Employees need parking, people living downtown want to park near their home and businesses need parking for their customers," he said.

Gallant said that the expansion of the Laconia Clinic, with the addition of the Caring for Women (OB/GYN) facility across Harvard Street, and the occupation of the Federal Building on North Main Street by Lakes Region Community Services highlighted the dearth of all-day parking, particularly on New Salem Street where her employees parked for years. There are eight parallel parking spaces on the west side of New Salem Street and another 38 vertical spaces, including two handicapped spaces, on the east side, half of which are restricted to two hours. Gallant said that some of her co-workers took to parking in the two-hour zone only to be issued tickets.

Both Myers and Adams acknowledged that more frequent and consistent enforcement of parking regulations began in June, when the Police Department deployed Community Resource Officers (CROs), whose positions were not funded in 2011-2012 city budget.

Gallant said that the police, who "kindly voided a few tickets," suggested they park in the parking garage, two blocks south of her Main at Veterans Square location. In her letter she wrote that "we all have a sense of feeling unsafe in the parking garage," adding that this has been a common reaction to the facility "for years, and with good reason according to my staff that attended Empire Beauty School and used the parking garage regularly."

Adams said that apprehension about using the parking garage, especially on the part of women, is "a legitimate concern" and "has always been an issue." He said that officers patrol the garage at least three times during each shift and steps have been taken to remove homeless people living in the stairwell.

Myers said that the lighting at the garage was upgraded earlier this year while conceding that the stairwell remains poorly lit. "It is definitely a valid concern," the city manager said, "and we are continuing to make the garage safe and well lit."

While touring downtown, Myers observed that the upper level of the garage was empty and the rest only 30-percent to 40-percent full. "There were plenty of spaces," he said.

Gallant asked city officials to consider redesigning eight spaces on North Main Street alongside the library, where "no one EVER parks," from two-hour to all-day parking. At the time, she said that dividing the 38 vertical spaces on New Salem Street behind the railroad station between two-hour and all-day parking was confusing and proposed lifting the two-hour restriction on all of them.

Bullerwell allowed that "we might strike a better balance between all-day and two-hour parking," suggesting that the row of spaces facing Beacon Street East in the City Hall parking lot, which are currently restricted to two-hours, could become all-day parking. "They don't appear to serve any business," he said. Likewise, he shared Gallant's misgivings about using the parking garage as well as understood her reluctance to expect women employees to walk from one end of downtown to another after dark.

Myers said that apart from Gallant's letter, which "brings the issue to light," questions have also been raised about the location of loading zones downtown and proposals have been presented to build so-called "pocket parks" and provide for outdoor dining downtown, all which would bear on parking. "This is an opportune time for a review," he said.