White River Junction
If green-lighted, the project in the lot behind the former American Legion building would cut about 60 feet into an embankment to open space for lined parking spots on hard-pack gravel; remove one utility pole; and add two lighting fixtures. Grading the area with pervious material would eliminate the need for improved drainage and a retaining wall that would have been necessary with the addition of a paved surface, according to Public Works Director Hannah Tyler.
Tyler and DPW Assistant Director Jeremy Delisle presented the proposal at the Selectboard meeting on Tuesday, pitching it as a temporary remedy to help relieve parking shortages that have been exacerbated by recent growth in downtown White River Junction. An array of business openings, the multi-purpose Bridge & Main building and other developments have put the squeeze on downtown’s 368 downtown parking spots, including the 142 municipal spaces in the South Main Street lot.
“This allows us to lay out base gravel that prepares it for pavement, so if you did eventually want it overlaid it would be ready,” Delisle said at the meeting. “The end product would be the most spaces we can get in that area without a retaining wall or stormwater structures.”
The project, which may be eligible for tax increment financing — which allocates certain tax revenues for infrastructure improvements — would include about $14,000 in materials and two new lighting fixtures to be installed at a cost of about $4,250.
Last year, a $20,000 study administered by a town steering committee and an outside consulting firm considered various parking improvement options, including a $560,000 plan that would have regraded and repaved the lot and added 42 parking spots, lighting poles, a dumpster and recycling area as well as four electric vehicle charging stations. An eight-foot retaining wall would have run along the southern edge of the lot as part of that project.
Other options included parking meters and a parking garage, but progress has stalled in recent months in part due to turnover in Hartford’s Public Works department. Tyler replaced previous DPW Director Rich Menge in April and the department’s assistant director, Rich Hammond, left this summer to become DPW director in Rockingham, Vt.
“Unfortunately with all of the staffing changes we had, (parking improvements) didn’t make it into construction season and the planning process went on hold again,” Tyler said at the Selectboard meeting. “Jeremy and I thought it might be a good idea to take a step back and not install any large scale or expensive, permanent infrastructure at this time.”
If 45 spots are added, it would amount to a cost of about $405 per spot, much less than the $8,000 to $10,000 per spot in typical non-garage parking projects, according to Town Manager Leo Pullar.
“Is (this project) ideal? No, we’d obviously like to have something that maybe looks pretty,” Pullar said during discussion at Tuesday’s meeting. “But this is very functional and addresses a lot of the concerns as we continue to look at the recommendation of (the steering committee) and see what’s next.”
While in support of the effort, Selectwoman Becca White was wary of the potential for the hard-pack option to become a permanent, inelegant feature downtown.
“I’ve seen it happen in other communities where these kinds of short-term solutions become long-term solutions,” White said. “It sounds really lovely now and I think it’s going to be an excellent short-term solution. I can also see where it would be potentially easy for it to drag on for years.”
Pullar agreed, highlighting that the town no longer has wiggle room to green-light development projects without parking considerations. The parking study last year determined that at the current rate of growth, occupancy of municipal parking spaces downtown could soon exceed 90 percent at certain times of day, potentially discouraging visitors from returning.
“We’ve wanted development so bad that we’ve kind of let it go without a plan for parking. I don’t think we can do that anymore. Parking problems like this are good to have in a growing downtown, so we just have to figure out how to address that,” Pullar said.
Selectboard Chairman Simon Dennis suggested assigning a certain number of additional parking spaces for each piece of new development. Pullar agreed, and said the town also needed to be creative in finding ways to encourage visitors to carpool into downtown. The transportation subcommittee of the energy commission have brought up the concept of “mini park and rides” at places such as Watson Park in Hartford Village.
“We’ve got to think outside the box,” Pullar said.
Tyler said innovative ways to make downtown more biker- and walker-friendly are also important.
“There’s a lot of information out there about how (having more bicyclists and walkers) gives people more of a sense of community and helps the economy,” Tyler said. “That would also obviously take some pressure off of the parking strain.”
Even if the town opts for the hard-pack spaces, the four electric-vehicle charging stations would still be installed as part of project administered by the town’s energy commission, Tyler said.
Jared Pendak casn be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.