LETTER: City Does Not Need a New Parking Garage

I have kept informed of the debate over whether a new parking garage is needed in Portsmouth. The City Council was ready to vote on funding for the a garage in May 2011. Concerns were raised over whether a new garage is needed and if so, were there other alternatives to building a parking garage? The City Council  seemed to think they knew all the answers, but "threw a bone" to the public and were willing to fund a study.

The study was done during the autumn of 2011 and a report was finalized and made public in December 2011 and  January 2012.  Nelson Nygard's analysis gave a number of recommendations, each one of which has been disregarded by the City Council.

First, the parking study does not support the construction of a new garage in downtown Portsmouth.  At peak utilization times (on weekends)  the High-Hanover garage is 88 percent full at peak. During weekdays, utilization is "moderately high... but still below capacity at 78 percent at 12 p.m." The study also found "Compared to the ideal occupancy .... these results indicate that for the majority of the time Portsmouth has more than adequate parking supply to satisfy its demand."  (Nelson Nygard Report page 15.)

In order to increase parking capacity, the Report suggests the following:  1) take away barriers to walkability, such as making  stop lights shorter at some key intersections to encourage more walking; 2) managing private parking spaces to allow for utilization by the public; 3) pricing parking by zones, i.e. the closer to downtown, the more expensive the parking, thus  giving incentives to those who wish to pay less to park further out. 

What has the City done to explore these alternative solutions?  Thus far, the City has rejected each one of these solutions, except is now considering whether parking should be priced by zones.

The City has an agreement for the public to use the Masonic Temple lot on Middle Street.  It is not usually filled to capacity.  Perhaps more publicity about this lot's availability would be helpful.  The City has an agreement with the Connect Community Church  (just off  Market Street Extension) which allows parking in their lot.  The agreement allows for the public to park there  and 93 spaces are available to the public, except on Sunday mornings until 1 pm on Sunday.  It is about a 7/10 of a mile walk to Market Square.  If citizens don't wish to walk, perhaps an enterprising entrepreneur will provide a shuttle service to downtown.  If parking is free and the shuttle costs $1, many people will opt for this less expensive option. Or perhaps the Coast bus could put this stop on their schedule.

The suggestion has been made by the Blue Ribbon Parking Committee that a parking garage should be put at the Worth lot.  This lot was considered by Nelson Nygard for a parking garage and the site was nixed for a variety of reasons:

• It does not have sufficient space to be suitable, i.e. it is not cost-effective to build a garage at this site;
• There are environmental concerns with a parking garage that is surrounded by other buildings, i.e. exhaust build-up in downtown;
•  There are problems with ingress and egress. 
• In addition, a garage at this location would  cut off light and air in this area of downtown and make the Vaughn Mall a cave-like area. 

The Blue Ribbon Committee suggests purchasing the building at 25 Maplewood Avenue and part of the property where Cabot Furniture is.   The City appraises 25 Maplewood Avenue at more than $1.5 million dollars. Who knows what it would cost to buy a parcel of the Cabot Furniture lot?  The projections for building the parking garage, before purchasing any additional property, put the cost at $14 million.  Is this cost justified?  Let's look at less costly alternatives, such as parking in outlying areas and shuttling into town.

Let's take a more practical approach and look again at whether we truly need a new parking garage.  Let's put into effect the proposals of the Study such as incentivized parking and shared parking.  Let's give citizens the information needed so that they may  park in lots that are available, but currently not publicized by the City. 

Susan V. Denenberg

Portsmouth