A Sanford City Council subcommittee has recommended the full council re-examine a parking management plan. Currently parking in all city-owned lots and on city streets is free, including in the Mid-Town Mall, the lower portion of which is shown here. TAMMY WELLS/Journal Tribune
SANFORD — The city of Sanford is expected to further discuss the possibilities of adopting some sort of managed downtown parking, including downtown streets and city-owned lots.
It is a discussion that has been had before, and in 2015 a parking plan was developed but wasn’t implemented.
Now, it could. The Property Subcommittee of the Sanford City Council agreed informally on Tuesday to recommend that the city re-examine how parking could be better managed downtown.
A managed parking plan could have many facets. There could be a provision that would make the first 30 minutes of parking free, for example, and business owners could pay the fee for their customers, if they chose to do so, pointed out Community Development Director Ian Houseal.
The Mid-Town Mall itself is privately owned, but the city owns the parking lot, along with several other lots in the downtown area, including the School Street lot, Sanford City Hall parking lot and the Sanford Police Department lot. Parking in the lots is free, as it is on city streets.
The parking issue arose when Ben Meggs of Meggs Properties LLC, who purchased a portion of the Mid-Town Mall a year ago, asked the city to designate some spots in front of a couple of businesses as 30-minute parking.
Parking is currently designated at two hours in the Mid-Town Mall.
Councilors at the subcommittee meeting balked at the prospect of including the 30-minute provision in the parking ordinance, citing enforcement issues.
“I’m sick of putting up signs if we’re not enforcing it,” said Sanford Deputy Mayor Luke Lanigan. “I’m all for discussing any parking lot changes.”
Councilor Maura Herlihy agreed that enforcement is an issue.
There are other issues at play as well. Because the Mid-Town Mall lot is lot is city-owned, plowing, snow removal and maintenance are done by the city, at city expense.
“The businesses in south Sanford should not be subsidizing the parking in the Mid-Town Mall,” Lanigan said.
“It sounds like we need to get the businesses on board,” said Councilor Ayn Hanselmann.
City Manager Steve Buck pointed out that the city has agreements on parking spaces in the mall parking lot with Northland, the company that developed the Sanford Mill, and with SIS bank.
A parking contract the city has had governing employee parking with the Department of Health and Human Services, a tenant at the mall, has expired, Herlihy said following the meeting.
“The only way to (manage parking) is to have a system whereby people pay for parking in various ways,” said Herlihy, citing some of the methods mentioned at the meeting. “We have too much of a problem with long-term parking.”
Subcommittee members agreed that Meggs could post 30-minute time limit signs, temporarily, limited to the two businesses.
“He can use (the signs) as a potential deterrent,” said Herlihy, but added that the city would not be involved with managing any 30-minute parking scofflaws.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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