Center Parking Study in the Spotlight

For decades, there have been two constants when discussing parking in Belmont Center:

1. No one likes what's there now, and 

2. No one likes any of the plans to change what's there now.

That has been the dilemma facing planners, consultants, businesses and residents since the time when Leonard Street became Belmont's commercial hub. 

But as Belmont Center becomes a destination location for restaurants and as the demands for the available spaces around the Center grows, the need for a comprehensive program to satisfy these several constituencies has become paramount for the town.

Tonight, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall Auditorium, just such a project to resolve the longstanding parking issues will be given a public airing before it is sent to the Board of Selectmen for action. 

This parking plan under discussion will do away with limited free parking, instead creating an adjustable market-based system – which have been successfully installed in communities such as Redwood, California – to determine parking fees while allowing neighborhoods can "opt-in" and allow long-term parking on their streets in exchange for pocketing some of the parking revenue collected by the town.

According to Jay Szklut, Planning and Ecomonic Development Manager for the Office of Community Development, the re-introduction of parking meters on Leonard Street and allowing long-term parking on the residential side streets near Belmont Center have been two recommendations that deserve further discussion and clarification.

In Szklut's view, the parking plan answers three basic questions from the community:

Is there a parking problem in the Center? 

Complaints about difficulty finding parking in the Center, both by residents and by business owners, have been a consistent theme in planning for the Center over the past several years. The March 2002 Municipal Parking Study compared the actual number of spaces to those required by zoning and found that the Center did have a shortage of spaces, according to Szklut. 

That study also noted that less than 70 percent of the available spaces in Belmont Center were utilized at any given time, with only Leonard Street and the then existing Claflin lot approaching total utilization during peak demand. 

The Belmont Center Planning Group recommended in their 2008 Final Report to “provide sufficient parking to support Center businesses and land uses.” The specific short term strategy identified in the report was to “increase utilization of existing parking.” 

Does a successful Belmont Center require free parking on Leonard Street? 

The notion of free parking in commercial areas developed in part as a response to the development of shopping malls, said Szklut. 

However, the recent failures of many malls and the recent trend towards lifestyle retail centers developments supports a view that customers want more from their shopping experience than just free parking. 

Given the significance of space utilization, the question for Leonard Street is not whether the spaces should be free but how to best utilize those spaces to support the businesses in the Center and to provide maximum customer access to those businesses. 

While free, parking is currently regulated by time constraints. The 2011 study documented that patrons park on Leonard Street on average for 45 minutes and in the Claflin Lot for nearly two hours.  

In other words, customers that come and park on Leonard Street either must limit their visits to one hour, or stay longer but risk getting a parking ticket. For customers that park on Leonard, this is not sending the right message: "Stay for one hour, and leave!"  

The proposed paid parking on Leonard Street would instead manage the availability of parking on Leonard Street by adjusting the price according to demand: if parking costs $1 per hour, patrons that expect to stay for an hour or two will pay and park on Leonard; patrons and employees that expect to stay for longer (or do not want to pay) can park in the Claflin Lot for cheaper prices and free parking that better accommodate longer stays.  

Allowing for the market, through a pricing-to-control-availability system, to determine the fee is more likely to yield an efficient delivery of parking spaces satisfying customer demand and supporting local businesses.

Why include the residential side streets as part of the Belmont Center Parking Management Plan?  

Szklut believes that comprehensively managing parking in Belmont Center does not solely include Leonard Street, the Claflin Lot and a few adjacent side streets. Understanding the impacts and needs of employee, commuter, residential and visitor parking is a crucial element of designing a system that works for all users.  

Currently, most side streets around Belmont Center limit parking to two hours, meaning that employees, residents, and visitors have very limited long-term parking opportunities.  

Allowing residential blocks to opt-in to allow permit-only parking for commuters and/or weekday employees allows for improved utilization of the existing capacity in the Center. 

This would mean that block-by-block, residents can allow permit parking on their block. Permits would be limited to a certain number per block (residents decide the number of permits) with collected revenues going into a neighborhood fund.

Residents can decide how to spend the revenues, whether it be to improve lighting, street sweeping, sidewalk improvements, or other priorities. This type of system gives control of their street to the residents of the street while serving the needs of employees and commuters that work in the Center, shop and dine after work, and use MBTA service.