Panel seeks comment on future of downtown Bangor parking

BANGOR – A parking advisory group appointed by the City Council has completed its review of the downtown parking situation and is ready to present its recommendations and get some feedback during a public meeting next week.

The 2005 downtown parking advisory committee, chaired by City Councilor Geoffrey Gratwick, will unveil a variety of ideas for staving off an anticipated parking crunch. The meeting is 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, in council chambers at City Hall.

“All of the more or less annual downtown parking advisory committee meetings are held very publicly, but it can take several months to work through all of the issues that the committee must examine,” Sally Bates, a city economic development officer whose focus includes downtown, said this week.

“To make it very easy for the public to weigh in on what the committee has come up with before it [goes before councilors], the committee has set up this public meeting,” she said.

After the public’s comments are factored in, the recommendations will move on to the council’s transportation and infrastructure committee, also chaired by Gratwick, for review and then on to the council for a final decision.

When the first of four scheduled meetings of Bangor’s downtown parking advisory committee was held in October, members reviewed a parking report prepared by Republic Parking, which operates the city’s garage at Pickering Square.

Among its upshots was that while there should be adequate parking for the next five years, shortages could follow if no action is taken.

To go with the parking report, Bates prepared her own statistics for parking needs over the next decade. Her projections show demand will increase by about 200 spaces by 2015, while the capacity is expected to decrease by 100.

Bates’ numbers took into account 120 spaces set aside in the Pickering Square parking garage for the University of Maine System, which moved downtown in October. Also factored in were 40 spaces for Eastern Maine Development Corp., which this week is moving to Harlow Street.

Reduced capacity is expected to come when construction begins on the new county courthouse building.

Bangor now has 12 downtown lots providing 1,400 spaces. Some lots are for monthly permit holders, who pay $25 to $65 a month for a space. Others are for visitors who prepay for a set amount of time. The rest are a combination.

To meet future needs, the panel considered several suggestions to maximize the city’s existing capacity. Those suggestions do not include rate increases but do call for considering reconfiguring parking spaces downtown.

Also proposed are:

. Creating permit parking on French Street. This would involve converting 18 spaces along the west side of French Street, between State and Penobscot streets, to parking by permit only. The permits would cost $45 a month each.

. Creating additional options for overnight parking within the Downtown Parking Management District, but only when that doesn’t interfere with ice and snow removal.

. Identifying areas that can become parking spaces for two-wheeled vehicles without eliminating any regular spaces. The panel thought permit fees for motorcycle parking should be half the cost of regular rates.

. Eliminating the coin box system controlling 25 of the spaces behind the parking garage and converting them to parking by permit to meet increasing demand in that sector.

. Implementing a flexible fee schedule for event parking at the garage, not to exceed $10 a day, and making $35 permits available to people who live within the downtown parking management district.

The panel also wants to discourage long-term parking on downtown streets because turnover is essential to customers and visitors.

Options include charging more for time-related parking tickets for repeat offenders, based on some sliding scale, and directing the parking enforcement team to operate in an unpredictable pattern.