Planning and Zoning Director of Special Projects Steve Lafferty sent this email to stakeholders regarding the new parking projects coming to the Historic District:
This message is going to you because of the extensive amount of misinformation and misrepresentations that have been distributed about the parking program proposed for downtown Ellicott City.
These are the facts regarding the parking and the contracts:
- All of the free parking spaces in the parking lots will remain free.
- The hours of enforcement are not changing – it is, and will continue to be, 10am to 6pm daily.
- The meter fees on lots D and E will increase by $.25. The new hourly rate will be $.50, making the cost to park ALL day on those lots $4.00.
- The meter fees on lots B and C will remain at $.50. There is no increase, so the cost to park ALL day on those lots will still be $4.00.
- On-street parking will cost $1 per hour. If you need less than an hour, you can put in coins for that amount of time.
- Meter fee increases (Lots D & E and on the street) will NOT go into effect until after January 1.
- The time limit on Main Street and Maryland Avenue will remain two hours.
- There will be a 15 minute grace period for parking on Main Street and Maryland Avenue to allow for quick in and out trips. The grace period is only for those who are parking for 15 minutes or less. The meter must be fed by those who are staying longer.
- The loading zones will remain the same.
- Central parking will continue to provide parking enforcement.
- Parking spaces are being marked on Maryland Avenue and Main Street; this is a change from the current layout where individual spaces are not marked on Main Street.
- The Streetline parking app will guide people to vacant parking, whether paid or free spaces, and functions like a GPS.
- No decisions have been made about how to address residential parking. Providing residential parking permits is being discussed and will be discussed with residents later this month.
- The procurement process for Streetline followed all of the purchasing requirements, including public notice on the County web site, through the State of Maryland and a bidder list of over 6,000 as well as direct email to likely potential bidders.
- Two bids were received; however, one was received late and was untimely. Neither was from Maryland.
- The purchase of Duncan meters has been described as costing $250,000 and as $170,000; they cost a little less than $125,000 and will replace meters that are used in the lots.
Thank you.
Note, too, that this letter makes it seem like putting new meters (where there were no meters before) is just fine -- hence the reference to it is worked in with no great fanfare as bullet point #5. Not least of all, no consideration has been given to residents. That might have been first on the agenda for an administration thinking of requiring residents to pay to park. It seems as if this is an afterthought. Far from being a clarifying letter, this leaves so much unanswered and further obfuscates the nuances of an already troublingly complex issue.
What you see as a "frivolous bells-and-whistles plan" others see as an innovative solution to a long standing problem; matching available spaces with drivers looking for them. Residents (and anyone else for that matter) will still be able to park free between 6 PM and 10 AM. That seems to be a reasonable accommodation between residents, patrons and shop owners. -wb
As for the residents, anyone who lives in a "city" environment should not expect easy access to parking. Parking is free between 6pm and 10 am, which is more generous than in most city areas. The comment about potential bidders not offering the same product as Streetline is just plain incorrect- a short search would give you an entire industry with such capabilities. Perhaps they were simply not interested in such a minimal size project such as this one.
ALL OF THE FREE PARKING SPOTS IN THE PARKING LOTS WILL REMAIN FREE Why then are they working in LOT F behind the wine bin tomorrow and wednesday ?