Conversations regarding paying to park in downtown Damariscotta continued Oct. 21 as the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen met with representatives of the Twin Villages Alliance to discuss the matter.
The hourlong workshop was part of a two-year ongoing discussion about the feasibility of introducing a pay-to-park system in the municipal parking lot.
“What we’re looking at is a way to generate revenue to pay for the parking lot improvements,” Damariscotta Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Robin Mayer said. “We haven’t decided anything. We’re just exploring our options.”
Twin Villages Alliance Chairwoman Mary Kate Reny agreed, saying the goal of the evening was to help the selectmen “ather as much information as possible” regarding the downtown parking area.
“We ask that this not be the last time we discuss this,” Reny said. “This is a very complicated issue and no one knows all the repercussions.”
Accountant Fred Brewer presented a handout on the estimated revenue the town could make by installing a pay-to-park system in the summer. If all of the 130 parking spots were filled from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the entirety of June, July, and August at a rate of $1 per hour, Brewer said the town would generate $84,240.
“This is every single spot, every hour, with no discount for residents,” Brewer said.
Brewer then adjusted the numbers to reflect parking lot use based on observations by parking enforcement officers from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2. During each round of checks, the parking enforcement officer would record whether the lot was full with vehicles circling, nearly full with one or two parking spots available, or not full with three or more spots available.
During the 13-day study, the parking lot was observed to be not full with three or more spaces available from 8:15 a.m. to noon each of the 13 days. The parking enforcement officers observed the lot was more likely to be full with vehicles circling or near full with one or two spots available from noon to 2:30 p.m.
Using the parking enforcement officers’ observations as well as photos taken by Reny in 2013 of the parking lot throughout the day, Brewer discounted Monday to Thursday, the less-busy hours of the day, and the month of June, which Brewer said is not as busy as July and August. With those changes, the estimated total revenue the town could gain from a pay-to-park system ranged from $37,814-$44,928, which did not include the costs of running the kiosks, including maintenance and credit card fees.
Another topic of discussion was a 2013 study conducted by a University of Southern Maine professor and one of her students. The study, which fueled a debate about pay-for-parking, recommended a $1-per-hour charge to use the Damariscotta municipal parking lot during the summer months.
Bob Reny said the study made assumptions about Damariscotta and the parking lot that “did not have a lot of reality” in his opinion.
“I don’t have a Ph.D., but 40 years of being in that parking lot almost every day gives me some credibility,” Bob Reny said.
Bob Reny said the study compared Damariscotta to Boothbay Harbor, a town he said Damariscotta has little in common with. Bob Reny conducted his own survey of restaurants, hotels, excursions, boats in the harbor, and parking spaces in both towns. He found Boothbay Harbor outpaced Damariscotta in every category.
“I was told Boothbay Harbor has 500 to 700 boats in the harbor during the week and somewhere in the thousands on busy weekends,” Bob Reny said. “I think we have 50 to 75 boats, and that includes pumpkins.”
Mayer said the money raised through the pay-to-park system would be used to help pay for a $1 million renovation of the parking lot. While the town is actively exploring grants to help pay for the renovations to the parking lot, a yet-to-be-formed fundraising committee will have to compete with other local projects, including the Central Lincoln County YMCA expansion project, for private donations.
“It’s stiff competition for this same pool of money,” Mayer said.
Bob Reny said he had ideas of how else the town could generate revenue for the parking lot without pay-for-parking. Selectman Josh Pinkham urged him to bring the ideas forward at the next meeting.
“We’ve come up with ideas, but if we’re missing any, bring them forward to help us make a decision,” Pinkham said. “We need a solution.”
The selectmen and the alliance intend to meet again in January. Town Manager Matt Lutkus said the focus of the meeting will be about alternatives to pay-for-parking to raise revenue for the town.
