The city of Portland is banning weekday parking along the entrance road to Evergreen Cemetery in response to complaints from neighborhood residents about University of New England students parking there.

The city said in a news release Tuesday that the change will take effect April 4, but vehicles parked along the cemetery entrance road, which is located off Stevens Avenue, were being warned starting Tuesday.

Beginning April 4, vehicles parked along the entrance road Monday through Friday will be ticketed or towed, unless the occupants are attending a funeral. Six spaces will also be preserved in front of the cemetery office.

Jessica Grondin, a spokeswoman for the city, said the decision will eliminate 50 parking spots along both sides of the entrance road. Each space currently has a two-hour parking limit, Grondin said.

“As we all know, Evergreen is a jewel in the city. The historic nature of the cemetery as being one of the first rural or ‘garden’ designs in the country I think requires us to make it a major priority for preservation and investment,” City Manager Jon Jennings said in a written statement. “After observing all the parking that occurs at the front entrance and listening to neighbors, the district councilors and I thought it important to eliminate parking.”

City Councilors David Brenerman and Justin Costa hosted a community meeting in December about UNE students parking in the 239-acre cemetery instead of the school’s satellite lot on Bishop Street, which is a 10-minute walk from campus.

There are 900 parking spaces on or near the campus, including 268 spaces at the lot on Bishop Street, according to the university. The Bishop Street lot will be expanded by 187 spaces later this year. The school runs shuttles from Bishop Street to the campus every five to six minutes from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“This is a cemetery and historic landmark, not a parking lot, and should be treated with great deference,” Brenerman and Costa said in a joint written statement. “That is why we have decided to prohibit daily parking there.

“We would like to thank all of the neighbors that have contacted us about this issue, and all those who attended our public meeting at UNE. We are pleased the manager is moving forward to restrict parking along the cemetery entrance, and are committed to working with UNE to address the broader issue of parking along Stevens Ave.,” the councilors added.

During the community meeting in December, neighborhood residents said the congestion and parking issues had been growing gradually but got worse in the past decade as UNE expanded its Stevens Avenue campus, home to 900 students and burgeoning dental and pharmacy programs.

Residents said some cemetery parkers have been spotted sprinting between gravestones to get to campus. Others have been observed driving over graves and private lawns to get out after the cemetery gates are locked at night.

Jessica Siraco, executive director of Friends of Evergreen, said her organization supports the city’s decision. She said the presence of student parking at the entranceway seemed to intensify over the past two years. She is not sure why.

“It just doesn’t seem to fit with the contemplative nature of the cemetery,” Siraco said. “It has become a parking lot.”

In a statement, UNE said it supports the city’s weekday ban on parking along the entrance road to Evergreen.

“The University continues to meet with representatives from the city and the neighborhood, and is eager to work with everyone to alleviate the pressures on public parking that our residents, businesses and constituents experience,” Bill Chance, UNE’s vice president for Institutional Advancement, said in the statement. “As part of its planning process with the City of Portland, the University will be exploring ways to improve on-campus parking.”

UNE plans to increase parking at the Bishop Street lot by as much as 70 percent by next fall, according to spokeswoman Crystal Canney.

Evergreen Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Maine. Several notable Mainers are buried there, including architect John Calvin Stevens; Nathan Clifford, U.S. attorney general and associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court; and Neal S. Dow, a Portland mayor and candidate for president.

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Correction: This story was amended at 11:20 a.m., March 23, 2016, to correct the number of parking spaces on and near the UNE campus.

 

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