Parking for free in West Hartford in the town lots on Sundays will be ending on July 1. It's an attempt to raise revenue for the Town, and was part of the Town's budget plan passed in April. On-street parking will still be free on Sundays. The Town owns two parking garages at Blue Back Square and charges for parking seven days a week there.
The move to charge for parking on Sundays is predicted to raise revenue by as much as $120,000 a year, although it was not specified how much will be spent on additional parking attendant hours. This past week, Town Council members voted to change current parking policies in order to institute what was outlined in the budget that they adopted for the new fiscal year. In the adopted budget, other services such as ending free trash collection at churches and private schools, and instituting shortened library hours were also specified as budget cutting/saving measures.
It is predicted by Town management that charging for parking on Sunday at Town Center lots will have no impact on shopping or business there. Skeptics say that this remains to be seen, especially as people can just as easily shop elsewhere, like the malls, for free.
In the past, there have been issues with people parking on residential streets.
The article in the Hartford Courant reported that -
Councilman Joseph Visconti, who lives on Clifton Street near the center, said residents closest to the center have problems with spillover parking on the unmetered side streets Monday through Saturday.
The end of free Sunday parking in lots will encourage workers in downtown businesses to park on side streets to save money, he said, which will eliminate "the one day of peace we have a week" from cars turning in driveways and parked vehicles lining streets.
One thing that is particularly intriguing is that while the Town strives to become more "walkable" and wants to discourage traffic and the congestion that it brings, the Town also derives revenue from parked automobiles and people visiting the Center. It would seem that the two policies tend to work at cross purposes.
According to some statistics, our parking lots are already underutilized.
In this time of economic stress, let's hope that the prediction is accurate; that charging for parking on Sundays won't chase away business. If it does deter folks from visiting, that would be very unfortunate for us and our business owners indeed.
6 WH Responses:
"One thing that is particularly intriguing is that while the Town strives to become more "walkable" and wants to discourage traffic and the congestion that it brings, the Town also derives revenue from parked automobiles and people visiting the Center. It would seem that the two policies tend to work at cross purposes."
Making people pay to park is in no way "at cross purposes," and is instead entirely consistent with, a policy to become more walkable and discourage traffic/congestion. To the extent that a parking charge adds a cost to driving, it disincentivizes it, and thereby promotes walking. That it also produces revenue for the town only makes it doubly sensible.
Reducing or eliminating parking charges would only increase vehicular traffic and congestion, and truly be at "cross purposes" with the policy of walkability.
Sorry - I disagree.
Charging more for parking discourages people from coming to walk around town at all - that also hurts business.
Case in point - the first thing that West Hartford does to bring shoppers in to our stores at the holiday season is to eliminate parking fees. No doubt you will be able to park for free for events like Celebrate West Hartford too.
If you are trying to discourage driving and parking and yet base Town revenue on parking then it certainly is working at cross purposes.
The question is do you want to maximize revenue by encouraging people to bring their cars? or encourage walking and not collect budgeted revenue for parking?
Your logic may be to soak people who decide to drive - but actually there is a point where deincentivizing parking not only lowers overall parking revenue but also prevents people from coming to shop in our Town altogether.
There is absolutely nothing that people can buy in West Hartford that they can't get anywhere else and park for free.
well said Kerloc
Actually, I'm not at all sure that Kerloc disagrees with my post, which addressed only the inverse relationship between parking charges and traffic/congestion. Kerloc's "case in point" - the elimination of parking fees at holiday season to bring in shoppers - is fully consistent with my immediately preceding statement that eliminating parking charges would result in increased traffic.
Kerloc does not seem to "disagree" with my post, as far as it went, at all - rather, Kerloc's real concern seems to be with the ultimate economic impact on local businesses of a policy to reduce traffic.
So, I stand by my assertion that charging for parking is entirely consistent with a policy to discourage traffic/congestion. Whether such a policy is a sound one is, as Kerloc's post illustrates, another question.
higher parking fees and more stores closing - not a good mix.
West Hartford MUST be the smallest town in CT with pay-for parking. And now with stores closing weekly, it's getting interesting.
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