Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Discussion about parking in the Historic District reaches beyond Ellicott City.
Parking is free in the Historic District until Jan. 1, but a two-hour limit is still in effect and being enforced. Just ask WYPR's Midday host Dan Rodricks. In his column for the Baltimore Sun, Rodricks recounts a story told to him by Debbie Bakalich, who said she and her girlfriends have a tradition of shopping in Ellicott City during the holidays to support small businesses. On Nov. 24 - Small Business Saturday - Bakalich and her friends spent the day in Ellicott City, Rodricks wrote, each spending $200 to $300 during a full day of shopping. "... I get to my car and there is a $35 ticket for exceeding two hours. All of Ellicott City is small business, so don't you think, on Small Business Saturday, they would not give out tickets?" …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Residents gave Steve Lafferty a host of ideas for how to incorporate residents into the county's new parking plan.
Residents of the Historic District are also shoppers, so where, one Main Street resident wanted to know, do residents fit in the county’s new parking project? “Please keep this in mind,” Kelly Secret said at a meeting held Tuesday evening to address residential parking solutions. “We spend more money in town than any tourist." About 30 people attended the meeting with Department of Planning and Zoning Director of Special Projects Stephen Lafferty to express concerns and offer suggestions for a residential parking program. At a meeting on Aug. 21, County Executive Ken Ulman announced a plan to install multi-space parking meters on Main Street and Maryland Avenue and to introduce "Parker," a phone application that uses underground sensors…
Thursday, October 25, 2012
But the sweep did not include the Historic District, where merchants and residents have recently complained of illegal parking.
Parking has been a hot topic in the Historic District recently and one repeated complaint has been that that some drivers, including merchants and even a parking enforcement official, have been using disabled parking placards illegally to secure parking on Main Street. The Howard County Police announced Wednesday that the department worked with the Maryland Motor Vehicle Association (MVA) to find and cite 19 drivers for improper use of disabled parking placards and others who had no tags at all, according to a statement from Howard County Police. However, none of those citations were issued in the Historic District. In an Oct. 12 letter to merchants and residents of the Historic District, Director of Special Projects for the Department of …
Monday, October 22, 2012
The administration will not be waiting until April to implement new Historic District parking programs.
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 …
Monday, October 15, 2012
'I thought it valuable to get some correct information into the community' - Steve Lafferty
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Monday, October 15, 2012
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: Thank you.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
The county will meet with Historic District residents to discuss a residential parking plan.
The new Main Street parking program announced by Ken Ulman in August may be getting a tweak. In a letter sent to residents, the Department of Planning and Zoning Director of Special Projects Steve Lafferty announced a meeting at the end of the month to “provide you information about how [the parking program] will work and to discuss how residential parking may be addressed.” At a meeting on Aug. 21, Ulman announced a plan to install multi-space parking meters on Main Street and Maryland Avenue and the introduction of Parker, a phone application that uses underground sensors to map out where, at any moment, there are available parking spaces. The plan was guided in part by a study done in 2009 by Desman Associates (attached). One of the …
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Main Street merchants, residents and shoppers have lots to say, little to agree on, when it comes to paid parking in the Historic District.
(Updated at 7:45 p.m. to include comment from Ellicott City Business Association president Dave Carne.) More paid parking is coming to Ellicott City, but there appears to be zero consensus among merchants as to whether that’s a good thing. On the agenda at a Howard County Council public hearing Tuesday was legislation that would raise parking rates in some of the Historic District’s parking lots and set the rates at the new, multi-space meters that will be installed later this year. Testimony, however, focused not on the rate increases, but on the plan to add parking meters on Main Street and Maryland Avenue, a plan that the Council was not required to approve and does not have the authority to stop. For business owners, the issue was not…
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Crews have been a daily site on Main Street since the Aug. 20 derailment.
CSX crews have been on-site in Ellicott City daily since the Aug. 21 train derailment. Here, crews are seen on the tracks above a retaining wall in parking lot B, which has recently reopened all but three parking spaces. County spokesperson Kevin Enright said that plans for improvements to downtown Ellicott City are being pushed back pending the reconstruction of the retaining wall, which collapsed during the derailment. Want to add your voice? Start a blog on Patch.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Installation of parking meters on hold as CSX continues restoration after a fatal train derailment in Ellicott City.
All but three parking spots are open to the public in the parking lot where a CSX train dumped tons of coal during a train derailment in Ellicott City late last month, according county officials. There is still a lot of work to be done to repair the damage left by the 21 cars of a freight train carrying coal that derailed just over Main Street, killing 19-year-olds Rose Mayr and Elizabeth Nass and shutting down a main artery into the Historic District. Read full coverage of the Ellicott City train derailment. The road was re-opened four days later, but work still remains to be done, according to Public Works Director of Special Projects Steve Lafferty. "Howard County Government is continuing to coordinate with CSX and other government …
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
County officials tonight will discuss plans to ease parking, increase public safety and evaluate flood control systems.
Yes, Ellicott City/Columbia was just voted one of the best places to live by CNN's Money Magazine. Yes, Washingtonian just named Ellicott City as one of its top day-trip destinations. But there's always room for improvement. Improving Historic Ellicott City will be the topic of a Town Hall meeting tonight at 7 at the George Howard Building. Patch commenters seem to think there's plenty to improve. User angela blueskies wrote that she moved from Old Ellicott City because it seemed to cater more to tourists than residents. Sure if you want a bar it's okay, or a cup of coffee. But the amenities of daily living that most normal towns have that cater to those who live there full time? All are missing. Do you want to create this town as a …
john stephens
1:43 pm on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
beauty of the new app ? no offense, but thats an oxymoron imo. Its crazy around here these days ; people running around trying to recall their spot number, only to discover the bags over the ticket receptacles. It seems to confuse people then, as there is now an inordinate number of people exceeding the two hours. Free is actually not free . Mr Franz Kafka would find humor; its utterly ulmanesque more ›