South End Residents Protest Parking Deck

Just a few days after city officials unveiled a proposed $2 million to $3 million parking deck on Parrott Avenue, a group of South End residents are now coming out against it.

Members of the Steering Committee to Stop Garage on Parrott Lot have scheduled a meeting at the Portsmouth Public Library's Hilton Garden Room at on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to discuss strategy.

On Monday morning, a large display board announcing the meeting and calling for city residents to oppose the plan was displayed in front of one home.

"It's your neighborhood. Stop Parrott Garage," reads the display board. City residents are also able to take copies of the a flier the group created about the meeting.

According to city Principal Planner Nicholas Cracknell, , would cost between $2 million and $3 million and add 100 to 110 spaces to the existing 175 spaces now on the site.

With talk of using the Worth Lot for a new parking garage all but dead, Mayor Eric Spear had asked the Parking and Traffic Safety Committee to work with the city's Planning Department on a proposed two-level deck parking structure to be located on the Parrott Avenue municipal lot.

Cracknell also said the new facility would likely be about 12 to 14 feet high, with about 275 total spaces.

On Monday, Mayor Eric Spear said it is always good when city residents debate issues they care about.

"I encourage public participation in the parking garage discussion, and I’m glad people are taking an interest on a matter vital to our city," he wrote in an e-mail.

In the steering committee's flier on Monday, the South End residents argue the parking deck plan would serve as the beginning of resuscitating a previous plan to build an actual parking garage on the Parrott Avenue site. They also say the proposed parking deck would extend on Junkins Avenue, Pleasant Street and Parrott Avenue.

"The City Manager and the City Council seem to be driven by parking demands and the income that parking generates. They insist that new parking be within a five-minute walk from Market Square," the steering committee's flier reads.