Board of Aldermen 10-12-2021 Page 8
with my constituents and create an overnight parking for Locke Street and so on, we can still create it. We can
still work for it but we really can't ask for approval until that study is being done. As far as other Wards are
concerned or other parts of Ward 3 such as maybe Rancourt, Pennichuck, we could discuss overnight parking
because the remainder of this parking study that is due to be finished in February won't affect them. So | think
that we can look towards certain areas of being able to approve an overnight parking study.
| think the biggest impact will be on Ward 4 and part of Ward 3 that we really can't make a decision on. But |
think we can go forward with trying to come up with a plan for zoning of different neighborhoods. So | have met
with some people from French Hill when we’ve talked about the need to talk to all the neighbors and try to
create zoning. But they're also aware that we have to wait for the full parking study to be done to find out how
many spaces would truly be available but it doesn't stop us from finding out who wants it, or who needs it, and
then being able to move forward.
Rancourt - just using as an example, Pennichuck, some of those streets over there, we could create zones now
and if the Board went forward with approving some type of zoning. As far as cost is concerned, | do think that
there will be a cost to it. That would be a cost of staffing to Economic Development because they would have to
help develop all of these zones, maintain these zones, monitor the zones, and so on. That will take more
(inaudible).
So my colleague is right here in that respect so that | do believe there'll be indirect costs. Alderman Lu as well
is correct that we're talking two different studies here. This one here is for the overnight, which the downtown
parking study would not affect your Ward, although it could because you're on the edge of the downtown. So |
take that back, but perhaps not Ward 1 for Alderman Schmidt or something like that. But it would affect
Alderman Lopez as well as parts of myself. Thank you.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you very much, Madam President. I'm going to have a very different point of view. I've always been the
type to look at these situations individually. It’s the way | prefer to do it. | don't believe that we needed to study
for this. | think we should have had overnight parking in this city years ago and so my hope is that we can start
expanding this as soon as possible and getting as many streets as we can to have overnight parking. Thank
you.
Alderman Lopez
We've had an overnight parking program. It was a pilot program when | first became Alderman and was
adopted as a program. During that period, we had a process for individuals on the street asking their Aldermen
if their streets could be added to it and amending that program repeatedly. And particularly Ward 3 added a lot
of individual streets to the program. The way that it worked is somebody who is living on a street that's
identified by Fire, Police, and DPW as being wide enough and, you know, safe enough to have the parking
spaces, spaces are allowed on that street based on where they can be safely put and then the addresses in that
area are also authorized to apply for it. So you may live on a street where you can get parking permits but you
may have to park on the street next door if your street is too narrow but in a point where there aren't accessible
streets reasonably nearby, that street wouldn't necessarily be approved.
As a process when | became Alderman and as | was Alderman and through work with the Infrastructure
Committee, we explored that. We expanded it. We confirmed it in a semi-final form and then work stopped.
Like we didn't continue looking at that. We didn't look at additional options and several years past. We began
to talk about doing a study when a number of constituents signed a petition about two years ago, maybe three
now, on the back of a parking ticket because like most of Eighth Street had been ticketed and they objected to
that. When that was brought before the Infrastructure Committee, it was tabled and the argument was made
that it we needed to do a study because if you put overnight parking on one street then adjacent streets might
be affected and adjacent streets to that might be affected. It was considered part of the downtown. The
definition of downtown was expanded to include all the number streets. So we had a lot of conversation about
having a study but still several months passed before it actually took place.
