Parking Sensors Set to be Installed Monday

The administration will not be delaying a project to install new parking meters and sensors for a new phone app that will direct visitors to parking in the Historic District.

On Thursday, Oct. 18, Steve Lafferty passed on a request to the administration from some merchants asking to delay the implementation of both parking projects until after April 1.

On Friday, Lafferty, director of special projects in the Department of Planning and Zoning, sent a letter to stakeholders advising, “The administration does not want to delay the installation for five or six months.” 

The county will begin installing the sensors below the newly painted parking spaces on Main Street on Monday. Later this week, they will be installed on Maryland Avenue and in the county-owned parking lots in the Historic District.

The sensors will compile information about where parking spots are available; using Streetline’s Parker mobile phone application, people will be able to pull up a map with real-time and static data that can direct them to available spaces.

Work is scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. Monday, according to Lafferty, at which time all of the parking spaces on the north side of Main Street will be closed. Each space will reopen once the sensor sealant is dry, Lafferty said, and he expects parking will be available from the Patapsco River Bridge to Old Columbia Pike by 10 a.m.

Lafferty wrote that the county has not yet confirmed when the multi-space parking meters will be installed, also along Main Street, Maryland Avenue and in the county parking lots. Meters will not begin charging, however, until after Jan. 1, 2013. 

Also on Monday a contractor will be working to remove part of an unstable retaining wall in lot E (behind Ellicott Mills Brewing Company). The retaining wall is scheduled to be rebuilt next year, Lafferty said.

The attached map shows the dates for construction related to the installation of sensors beneath parking spaces. There are two changes to the dates on the maps: 

• Lot E will be closed Monday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
• Lot B will be closed Tuesday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Related articles:

- Merchants Ask for Parking Project to be Postponed

- Bigger Problems Than Meters on Main Street

- Do You Want to See a Metered Main Street?

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