WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The installation of parking kiosks the town has purchased is on hold while the Selectboard continues to debate an amended traffic and parking ordinance.
At Tuesday’s Hartford Selectboard meeting, the room was silent when board chairwoman Mary Erdei asked for a motion to pass the ordinance.
“I’m feeling conflicted,” board member Erik Krauss said. “I appreciate that we need to move forward but I’m also hearing maybe we haven’t done our homework.”
Krauss moved to put off a vote until the next meeting. His motion carried with four members voting in favor, Erdei voting in opposition and Brandon Smith abstaining. Michael Hoyt was absent from the meeting.
Krauss, Miranda Dupre, Ida Griesemer and Ashley Andreas, the four board members who voted in favor of waiting to take up the ordinance again, expressed their desire to hear from more residents before making a decision.
Andreas voiced her lingering opposition to paid parking all together.
“I’m trying to wrap my head around why we have parking meters if the town voted no,” Andreas said.
In 2020, Hartford voters rejected the use of $160,000 of a local option tax to purchase parking meters. Some residents understood their vote to be a statement in opposition to meters, not just the funding source.
“I thought we voted against parking meters, not just where it would be funded from,” said Andreas, who joined the board this March.
Last October, after hearing from business owners, shoppers and residents, Selectboard members voted unanimously to use about $145,000 of the town’s remaining federal COVID aid to install 16 fee-collecting parking kiosks throughout downtown. The kiosks would regulate 211 parking spaces, both on-street and in the town square parking lot, located across from the Hotel Coolidge.
The 189 spaces in the South Main Street lot by the VFW building will remain unmetered.
The fee to park has not been set yet but is expected to be around $1 an hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, Erdei said. Parking would be free on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
The new ordinance would raise the parking violation fine from $7 to $11. The violations will be enforced by a new community service officer, who also will act as the community health officer and be responsible for responding to animal control complaints.
A candidate for the position has been selected and is currently undergoing a background check, Police Chief Constance Kelley said.
Hartford resident Mike Morris suggested making the first 15 minutes of parking free to allow for quick stops such as picking up takeout from a restaurant.
Such a policy could also improve accessibility for those with mobility challenges who cannot easily park down the street in the free lots, Andreas added.
Although town officials still have to check if the kiosks can be programmed to make the first 15 minutes free, the board voted 5-1 to adopt Morris’ suggestion.
Erdei cast the sole no vote.
After Krauss made the motion to table the vote on the ordinance, town officials in attendance expressed their unease with the continued delay.
“I don’t wish to step out of my lane. I just wish to express a real concern I have that we’re talking ourselves out of a reasonable solution to a lack of parking,” Town Manager John Haverstock said.
The board had spent the previous hour hashing out the rationale for the meters with town officials and hearing feedback from the public.
“There’s a long history of the origins of why we need to have parking meters,” Lori Hirshfield, the town’s planning and development director, said.
As traffic has increased over the last 15 years in downtown White River Junction, enforcing posted two-hour parking limits has proved challenging in the absence of meters, Hirshfield said.
“We needed to find a way to have the enforcement people are asking for,” Hirshfield said.
Hartford isn’t alone in reconsidering its approach to parking. A handful of other Upper Valley towns have recently updated their parking ordinances or are examining their parking fees.
Last week, the Enfield Selectboard passed a new parking ordinance that combines three ordinances, all decades old, into one.
Due to a perceived lack of parking, the Selectboard asked Police Chief Roy Holland to conduct a parking study.
Holland wrapped up the study this spring and found that Enfield has over 120 spots, none of which are metered.
“A lot of people were surprised to find out we had that many,” Holland said. “It’s not a lack of parking spaces; it’s a lack of public information about where the spaces are.”
While overnight parking is not allowed in downtown Enfield, the new ordinance allows for the issuance of free overnight parking permits which can be picked up at the Police Department or local establishments that serve alcohol.
“If somebody has too much to drink, we don’t want them to drive home,” Holland said. “They’ll be able to get an overnight pass from that establishment.”
The ordinance also raises the general parking violation fee from $5 to $25, and allows the Selectboard to designate time-restricted parking zones.
Meanwhile, Woodstock is in the process of raising its parking fees from $1 an hour to $1.50 an hour and increasing the cost of most parking violation fines as well.
Hanover plans to review its parking rates and fees in September after conducting a study, Selectboard member Jennie Chamberlain said.
In Hartford, if the Selectboard passes the new ordinance, the public would then have 44 days to petition against it.
If nothing is received, the ordinance would go into effect on day 60 and the new kiosks could be installed.
The next Hartford Selectboard meeting is scheduled for July 8 at 6 p.m. in the Town Hall and on Zoom at: https://tinyurl.com/4v8ee87d.
Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.
