NEWBURYPORT — The issue that's been referred to as one of the biggest votes to face the City Council in decades was settled last night with a slim vote in support of paid parking for the downtown's off-street lots.
The council decision — 6 in favor, 2 against, 2 voting "present," and 1 absent — came after months of debate, study and negotiation among the many constituencies involved.
But whereas parking meters were once ceremoniously removed decades ago in the midst of an urban renewal project to attract visitors to a rehabilitated downtown, councilors last night cited the need to develop a comprehensive parking plan for the city and to raise revenue in a tough economy as reasons to bring it back.
Mayor Donna Holaday spent months working on the plan, making changes in response to suggestions and criticism.
"It was such a long process," said Holaday after the vote last night. "It was such hard work. I am very relieved that we can now move on to other business."
Holaday made some important concessions to the plan last night in order to ensure its passage, the biggest of which was reducing the cost of parking stickers to $5 for Newburyport residents and free for Newburyport seniors. Previously, the cost was $50 for residents and $25 for seniors.
The sticker allows residents to park for free in the municipal Green Street parking lot with time restrictions and in the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority's waterfront lots. Councilor Kathleen O'Connor Ives and others made it clear that lowering the permit fee was integral to their support of the plan.
"I'm really excited to have the opportunity to vote for that, because this has always been about diversifying revenue and being able to focus on people who are visiting the city a couple times a year," said O'Connor Ives.
For she and others, it was enough to put the burden on those who don't already contribute so much to the downtown through their property and excise taxes.
"Should (residents) be penalized for coming and using their own downtown that they subsidize already with their property taxes?" asked Councilor Tom Jones, who voted against the entire parking plan, regardless of his vocal support for the amendment. "At what point do the residents of the city get a little bit of a break?"
For Councilor Barry Connell, however, removal of the resident and senior fee stripped the plan proposed to the council of what he viewed to be its main public benefit — revenue. The residential stickers were expected to bring in about $25,000 of the $500,000 in revenue that paid parking is expected to raise.
"I can't understand the rationale basis," Connell said.
Connell said that to ask residents to go to City Hall to get their resident permit doesn't make sense if there's no payment.
"If the income is not going to be significant, why trouble the residents with that at all?" he asked. "It seems to me at that level, it's an inconvenience without much public benefit."
Councilors failed to support an amendment that lengthened the paid-parking hours from the proposed 6 p.m. ending hour to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, out of concern for restaurants, whose patrons who might go elsewhere if forced to watch the meter while dining out.
Employees of downtown businesses and shops will still be offered the opportunity to purchase a $100 parking permit that will enable them to park all day in 130 spaces allotted to them in the waterfront lots owned by the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority. If the measure passes a second reading scheduled for Feb. 7, a fee for the downtown lots will be implemented, charging 50 cents an hour Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday afternoons from noon to 6 p.m., though residents can park in the Green Street lot with their resident stickers.
Councilors Ed Cameron, Bob Cronin, Greg Earls, Ari Herzog, Kathleen O'Connor Ives, Barry Connell and Tom O'Brien voted to support paid parking. Councilors Brian Derrivan, Steven Hutcheson and Tom Jones voted against it. Councilor Alison Heartquist was not present.
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