BRUNSWICK

Some residents of Longfellow Avenue are willing to pay $25 for a parking permit if it means they are allowed to park on their street overnight.

By a 5-4 vote on Monday night, the Brunswick Town Council adopted a change in the town ordinance to allow overnight parking for those residents of Longfellow Avenue who purchase the permit.

Brunswick Police Capt. Mark Waltz met with about a dozen residents in September over concerns that residents and their guests were being ticketed.

According to a memo from Waltz to Town Manager John Eldridge, neighbors were looking “to have a reasonable amount of overnight parking for themselves and their guests” while still banning Bowdoin College students from parking overnight on Longfellow Avenue.

The fine for overnight parking is $25.

Waltz, who drafted the ordinance change, said other residents may want to see overnight permit parking in their neighborhoods as a result.

“Are we opening a Pandora’s box with this?” asked Councilor John Perreault.

Waltz responded by saying he expected to hear a similar request for residential parking permits by Page Street residents who also contend with Bowdoin students parking there. It would be easy to add another street onto the ordinance, said Waltz.

“It’s inevitable that you will have parking permits spread throughout the town,” warned Councilor John Richardson. “I’m not sure I want that kind of town, where people pay to park in front of their houses.”

Under the current ordinance, parking on both sides of Longfellow is banned between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.

The change allows a property owner to purchase up to two permits to be hung on a vehicle’s rearview mirror. The permits can be used by the property owner, relative, guests, family member or tenant and are not vehiclespecific. They do not entitle the permit holder to park on the street during a snow ban.

Those with the placard who were ticketed as a result of not displaying the placard can have the fine reduced to $10.

Eldridge said it will cost about $20 each to change every sign on Longfellow as it relates to parking. Those costs ought to be covered with the sale of permits, Waltz said.

Police will report to the council in a year as to the effectiveness of the ordinance change.

Longfellow Avenue resident and permit supporter Jill Pearlman said she estimated that she and her guests have received 40 tickets for overnight parking in front of her house over the past five years.

However, resident Connie Lundquist said she and other Longfellow Avenue residents were opposed to changing the ordinance. “I don’t think it’s a good policy,” said Lundquist. “I think the police have a lot better things to do.”

She said the ban was enacted about 15 years ago to eliminate the problem of Bowdoin College students using Longfellow Avenue for long-term parking.

She also noted that the town council chose to uphold the ban on a portion of Longfellow when the issue was brought forth three years ago.

There were also alternatives. The college, she said, offered the use of their parking lot on Coffin Street, which intersects Longfellow Avenue, for residents to park overnight. Longfellow residents also have the option to let police know they have a guest who needs to park overnight, she said.

Most driveways on Longfellow can accommodate at least two cars, Lundquist said.

Pearlman, however, said that the ban hadn’t been enforced for many years, up until about three years ago. The ordinance change, she said, was “a very modest proposal.”

Councilor Jane Millett noted that only about a dozen people attended Waltz’s September meeting, and Vice Chairwoman Sarah Brayman said the meeting was not representative of other residents.

“I disagree with that,” Waltz said in response to Brayman. “We invited everyone. The people who cared enough to show up, or who contacted me before or after (the meeting), coalesced around this.”

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com

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