Parking seen as first phase of downtown study

LACONIA — The first phase of a planned survey of the city’s downtown will deal with parking, despite the urging of the mayor to broaden the focus.

The City Council on Monday directed City Manager Scott Myers to make changes to the scope of a request for qualifications for a consultant to give input on downtown needs.

Mayor Andrew Hosmer said he found the draft of the qualification was too heavily focused on parking issues.

“We need to focus more on the overall economic development” of downtown, Hosmer said. “I think we should be looking for a more holistic approach.”

Some councilors, however, said it was critical to address parking issues as soon as possible.

Councilor Tony Felch said the urgent issue before the council is what kind of changes need to be made to the city’s deteriorating downtown parking garage.

“We need to wrap up work on the parking garage now,” he said.

Councilor Bruce Cheney said while the survey could explore several issues, he urged that dealing with parking be the study’s first priority.

Myers said there are various reasons people come into the downtown area. Some come downtown to work. With the opening of the Colonial Theatre and the CAKE performance venue, people are coming to enjoy entertainment. And more and more people will be coming downtown to live in condominiums and apartments.

The initial draft of the qualifications request said the purpose of the study would be to get an inventory and assess the availability of public parking downtown, and then use that information to come up with recommendations to help address existing and future parking, along with other issues.

A separate study on rehabilitating the downtown parking garage is continuing in the meantime.