Many Maine communities, with downtown growth, consider parking a necessary ingredient for further economic growth and resident happiness. To this end, Biddeford might build a parking garage, the Press Herald reported Nov. 30 in the article “Downtown Biddeford’s all abuzz, but the parking’s a buzzkill.”

A municipal parking garage can be an important asset for a growing community. It provides certainty to shoppers, employees and community members that parking will be available close to their destination.

Great examples include High-Hanover Garage in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Bangor’s Hammond Street Deck; and the Wells Street Parking Structure in Keene, New Hampshire. In particular, the High-Hanover Garage has been carefully expanded over the years to meet demand.

In contrast, an empty municipal parking garage just ends up being expensive to build, expensive to operate and expensive to repair. For example, Auburn’s Mechanic’s Row Parking Garage and some areas of the four garages Lewiston has built in the last decade and a half are considered underutilized.

Biddeford commissioned a 2012 parking study that identified a future parking shortage in the private mill area developments. If a municipal parking garage is built to serve these developments, it must be linked to long-term, affordable user fees.

Biddeford city staff have a solid grasp of the issues, presented in a May report titled “An Analysis of the Real Costs of Free Parking.” I hope Biddeford’s staff is empowered to make progressive decisions in the execution of downtown Biddeford’s parking and transportation policy as the city moves forward on this expensive decision.

Sam Snellings

Hollis

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