Latest study points to renovation of downtown parking garage

LACONIA — There is enough on- and off-street parking in the downtown area, with and without the parking garage, according to the findings of a parking study presented to the Laconia City Council at its Tuesday meeting.

As demand for parking grows, however, the structure’s 215 spaces could be a key part of providing adequate parking for downtown residents, workers, and visitors. 

Greg Strangeways of Walker Consultants shared the study's results with the council. The parking study was the first of two phases in an urban study currently underway. The study will inform the city’s renovation of the downtown parking garage, currently afflicted by structural as well as safety concerns.

Plans are set to renovate, rather than remove or replace, the garage. It would be far more costly to demolish and replace or relocate the garage than to renovate the existing structure, Public Works Director Wes Anderson has reported.

Construction is set to begin next year and conclude by the end of April 2024, according to a public meeting on the subject in August. 

The study’s two phases examine the parking demands and the overall mobility needs of the downtown area. The parking study examined current usage and made projections about future needs and what meaningful impact the garage might have on supply.

Within the boundaries of the study — the railroad tracks, Beacon Street West and the Winnipesaukee River — there are 713 total spaces. 

According to the study, there are 199 on-street and 514 off-street spaces. Within each category, just under 100 spaces were time restricted.

The study also included a survey and interviews with local residents and business owners. A top complaint was that most of the spaces without time limits, for those with longer stays or working in the area, were not centrally located; rearranging cars in capped lots to avoid citations was a common practice.

Overall, the study found the general supply of parking downtown to be adequate.

“One key finding was that people were able to find parking quickly within the downtown area,” Strangeways reported. 

Even during peak parking hours, typically during the summer, non-street parking downtown was about half full. Street parking during measured times was utilized more heavily, with about two-thirds occupancy. These spaces also tended to have much higher turnover, the report noted. Even with street spaces full, “that still leaves a lot of available spaces,” Strangeways told the council.

This continued to be true without the garage’s 215 spaces factored in. 

“The parking surplus would exist today even if the garage were completely closed,” the report notes. “However, restoring the garage would increase the surplus of parking available for employees and customers in the study area.”

At the same time, the study projected that demand for parking will grow in the next five years as in-office work, housing and the business climate recover from the pandemic. As businesses fill the remaining vacancies downtown and in-person workdays become more regular, it's possible that, at its highest, demand for existing parking could grow 70% by 2027, Strangeways told councilors.

Though this figure is likely an overestimate, Strangeways noted, it could mean that, without a usable parking garage, the city could face parking shortages downtown in future years. 

“If all this happened by 2027, and you didn’t have the parking garage, you would have potentially a small deficit in the downtown area,” Strangeways said. Such a deficit, at the projection of highest demand, would be between 15 and 37 spaces in 2027 but could grow to more than 60 by 2032.

Other business

At Tuesday’s meeting, the council also reexamined the proposed sale of a private Paugus Bay beach from the city to the residents with deeded access. An association of just over half of those residents is the proposed “buyer” — the sale price is $1 — of the beach.

At a meeting in September when the proposed sale was weighed by the council, residents were divided about whether the association should be the recipient of the property. Though all would keep their access rights under such a sale, not all residents agree with the association’s vision for the beach or trust that their voices will be heard by it. The council tabled the sale, asking the residents to negotiate an agreement between members and non-members of the association. 

A month later, after some negotiating, no agreement had been reached.

At Tuesday’s meeting, members of the Paugus Bay Beach Association asked City Council to follow through with the sale on the property. Remaining negotiations about the future of the beach should be made by residents, they argued, and there was no further need for the city to retain the property.

“The voting members are what changes associations,” said Tom O'Brien, a resident of Hillcroft Road since 2020 who introduced himself as someone with a background in real estate and associations. “We’re all neighbors here. ... Aren’t we forming one [unit]?” What is done to the beach will be decided by a later vote of the membership and need not be required to be set in stone before the sale, he continued.

Non-members asked for an additional month to negotiate. Knowing that they would be outvoted in an association vote about, say, the installation of a day-dock, they have asked the association to make commitments about what it will, and won’t, do to the beach.

The council left the sale on the table. 

“I think [the association] has done everything right,” said Councilor Bruce Cheney, in whose ward the beach resides. “I just want to see everything finished, with stuff in writing.”

The city also made temporary and permanent appointments to selectboard members and moderators in several wards. Gary Dionne and Greg Page were appointed moderators pro tem for Wards 1 and 5, respectively. Laura Ringer was appointed to selectboard for Ward 6.

Notably, Catherine Tokarz — the temporary moderator that stepped into the Ward 6 vacancy just 12 hours before the primary election — was appointed as regular moderator for Ward 6.