10/26 -

Date: October 8, 2007

Subj: South Freeport Traffic and Parking Committee Minutes, 9/19/07

Attendees: Brendon Alterio, Faith Baker, John Brewer, Joe Migliaccio, John Thomas, Suanne, Williams-Lindgren (Committee Chair), Susanna Liller (Facilitator)

Next meetings: October 10, October 30, November 13
6:30-8:30


We began the meeting with debriefs from our three guests on their observations of the summer traffic and parking activities: Jay Pinkham, Dale Olmstead, Chief Schofield

Harbormaster – Jay Pinkham
 Started keeping track in June
 The on-street parking always filled up first – always full, Monday-Friday and weekends.
 Gravel lot – lots of problems with people not reading the signs. When the sign was put up saying, “Permit Parking Only”, some people without permits still went in.
 Towards the end of August the town opened up areas of clam flats that had been closed. There are 50 commercial clammers and at any given time about 36 of them filled up the town road spaces and the leased Brewer lot, parking wherever they could. No more areas in the harbor are expected to be opened from this point on.
 The complaints he heard were; the permit only is “a pain in the butt”; why is there sticker parking?, why not give us consideration?
 There are a lot of contractors working on many of the islands, (not just Freeport islands.) They get there early and most take up the spots on the Brewer side of the road, and up the hill.
 Freeport has the only deep-water dock on Casco Bay that someone can drive a truck up to and load it.
 Freeport accepts grant money for allowing deep-water access, which is why the contractors come here.

Police Chief Jerry Schofield
 The parking “issue” didn’t seem to be as bad this summer.
 Data collection was limited by manpower/time and money.
 Only complaints were :
o One non resident parked without a permit, got a ticket and was not happy.
o The contractors were parking anywhere they could because they had no other place to park. They were parking legally but one resident called to complain because they were parking in front of his house. That same resident also complained that he thinks the 1 hour parking is accommodating Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster.
 The numbering of the spaces at the Brewer-leased lot helped make it appear more legitimate and deterred non-residents from parking there.
 Number of tickets written in S.Freeport from May 25 – Sept 10

Location Tickets Issued Cost Collected
Wharf 120 $2380 $1635
Brewers Leased Lot 61 $1405 $980
School 2 $25 $50

 Tickets were $20 each and went up to $25 in August
 Collection rate is usually 75% - haven’t billed out for this summer
 Need to better understand cost of enforcement program against gains
 Town sold a lot of parking permit stickers – about 250 @ $1.00
 It was a much quieter summer with less tension in the village. He felt there was less tension because: This is the 2nd summer of some of these parking changes. The first summer we had growing pains; Parking was better organized; A regular dissatisfied local was not around much this summer.

Town Manager Dale Olmstead
 Received only 2 complaints about the town-leased Brewer lot. One was a letter from a non-resident who complained that the Brewer’s town-leased Lot shouldn’t be for residents only. Another man from the south said the sign was misleading and that he was entrapped. Dale sent the man a picture of the sign, asking what about it was misleading. No response.
 He heard a few complaints about having to fill out a form to get a sticker.
 Many people were grateful that they could have a sticker and a place to park.

Shuttle Log Summary
 Ran for 20 days
 58 riders (33 were from a wedding)
 128 trips
 Cost for program: $4,037.50 (from Judy)
 Bustins Island Village Corp contributed $
 Cost @$69.61 per rider
 Cost @$31.54 per trip
 We had 11 days of 0 ridership which included weekends
 Shuttle started June 29 and went through August 6. The first weekend, there was a medical emergency and it didn’t run Saturday or Sunday. – had 1 rider Friday.
 Dale:
o He talked to about a dozen folks about the shuttle service:
o ½ of the people had heard about it
o He asked them if they would use it – the general response was, no, why would I spend an hour on the bus. Bustins and Freeport Residents won’t use it. Why would I give up my space to use a shuttle?

 Despite a lot of marketing of the service to Bustins Islanders, the shuttle figures weren’t a surprise to the Bustins Parking Advisory Committee, according to Faith. Most island property owners have regular, secured parking spaces. Half of island families have their own boats and have a parking spot with slip lease or HYC membership. Regular Lilly B riders generally have secured parking spaces with at least 40 seasonal parking and many weekend and weekly passes sold by Brewers to non-slip holders. Some islanders park at the Soule lot. Only the infrequent visitors each weekend who do not have regular parking would be potential shuttle riders. These numbers do not support having a regular shuttle service.
 All: Yes, it was the first summer doing this, - and it was a slow summer, but still regular waterfront users won’t use the shuttle because they will always choose to park as close their boats or properties as possible and many have regular parking places already.

Brewers Lot
 It was felt that the sticker system in the town-leased lot helped free up spaces in other areas.
 The numbering of spaces in the leased lot made parking more organized.
 The Chief agreed that we did prevent non-residents from parking in the Brewers leased lot and that we changed the usership. He thought the contractors may have parked there previously and now are prohibited, causing them to park elsewhere, and this should be a concern. Where will they park?
 Town-leased lot had 23 spaces – it was only totally full a few times.
 We were told we would hear from non-resident fishermen, but we never did. They parked in the street
 Faith: Brewers marina lot appeared to accommodate more vehicles this summer, taking some of the pressure off other areas. John Brewer said he re-organized the lot, sold more boats this summer and added gravel fill to one area creating more space. He stated another summer might be different because of more boats in the lot, but he hopes to be even more organized next summer.

Suanne asked the three guests what they thought we should keep doing:

 Chief:
o Continue sticker parking. It’s the easiest way for us to enforce.
o You don’t need to make any changes at Soule Lot.
o Once you tally up the numbers – maybe there would be a number of spaces you could consider reserving for fishermen and contractors.
o We should look at parking all through the village. Where should there be parking on only one side of the street? You have to look at the whole picture. If you’re going to take spaces away, you need to add them back in somewhere!
o Don’t forget the big picture and the impacts on everyone – not just the village!

 Dale:
o Continue with enforcement. It got a lot of publicity and it worked...
o Maybe you could set aside ½ dozen spots in the leased lot and let fishermen have a lottery to see who gets the spots.
o Really look at the usage of the Brewer Lot to see if it is underutilized. Maybe look at the possibility of non-resident fishermen using it, but we don’t want residents not to be able to find spaces.
o Don’t continue the shuttle.
 Jay:
o One hour parking was abused quite a bit. One hour isn’t enough time for fishermen to get out to boats, do what they need to and get back before the hour is over. The stickers do override the one hour limit but there’s no signage so people don’t know.
o Maybe the sticker override should go for an extra 60 minutes – 2 hours.

It was noted that from June 1 to Labor Day, lobstermen can’t fish after 4:00 on Saturdays and all Sunday.

Joe suggested setting up a method to keep tracking the utilization of the lots so the town knows how the usage compares to how they are designated. We would revisit this periodically or have an annual review. Give it to the Traffic and Parking Committee. Faith noted that maybe in the future, a shuttle could be used, not to invite more people to the area, but to eliminate more cars, traffic and parking issues with increased tourist numbers. John Thomas agreed saying that might be the case in ten years.

Susanna shared Diane Lukacs’ comments with the group:

She feels like there are larger groups coming to the waterfront, - like tourists. She wonders if the downtown has an ad campaign about enticing people to come to the waterfront. She’s concerned the town will open up the village to more tourist stuff, like duck boats. Freeport merchants should not use the waterfront as a tourist attraction.

She is concerned about safety. Her house is on Main Street and the parked cars there are a hazard for young kids. Should have at least parking on just one side of the street or discontinue parking on Main Street. Consider reducing the speed limits to 15 mph in the residential neighborhoods. For 4 days 2 cars were in front of her house with out of state plates. This is worrisome to her.

She is completely supportive of the working waterfront. She also feels we should continue the historic Bustins use of the parking lot. She feels the town made a mistake decreasing available spaces at Soule lot, affecting overnight parking. We need to be more flexible. First priority should go to Bustins property owners and to the working waterfront.

John Thomas agreed with Diane that parking is very congested on Main Street, - that it’s difficult to walk on Main Street. The problem is the greatest during the day. He suggested that at some point we may need restrictions here in the village, like a resident sticker.

Dale noted that attempts at slowing down traffic with speed bumps hadn’t worked. The residents asked to have them removed. Speed is a state issue. Chief Schofield noted that most people keep to the limit.

Parking on Resident Properties

Dale asked if the group had discussed having residents open up their properties to parking. He feels that it’s a practical solution if the number of extra cars is limited, so properties don’t look like a parking lot.

Faith said this was an issue that traffic and parking had on their list to consider before our SFPC was formed. It involves an ordinance change so that people who can accommodate extra vehicles on their property can help relieve some of the shortage if they are allowed to lease out spaces.

Joe suggested that we could get parking off Main Street by parking on resident properties. He said that nothing in the current ordinance prohibited it unless you collect money.

John said he lives in the village and some property owners allow cars to park on their yards, but don’t collect money for it. If too many cars were able to park on one property, it wouldn’t look good, so there should be specific guidelines regulating number of vehicles and amount of property that can be paved to allow more parking.

Dale suggested that if the group continues this discussion on land use they should invite Donna, the Town Planner.

(Continually the group reminded themselves that this parking issue is a problem for a few weekends during the summer. Brendon noted, there is tension on only 3 weekends and 8 week days.)

One Hour Ticket Override:

A discussion ensued as to how many hours extra should be added to the sticker override – 2?, 3?

Faith suggested 90 minutes. Chief Schofield said he’d rather see it be 3 hours and enforce it more strictly. He would prefer to see the sticker override repealed and increase the time available for each space. Brendon likes the 1 hour. He explained that the fishermen have bait in their trucks and they park right next to the restaurant. The odor is not pleasant for customers trying to enjoy a meal. He says if they are going out to their boats, he’d rather they park in the gravel lot or on the other side of the street, especially if they are staying longer than 1 hour.

Jay noted that all day parking fills up right away and sometimes the only spots left are on the restaurant side.

Someone suggested that the 1 hour parking ordinance be repealed. That was countered with a comment that at least one town councilor doesn’t like all day parking for residents on the street. You could take away the override sticker. 18 years ago it went into effect and the Council stopped enforcing it a year later. People don’t know that it’s a rule. We could repeal it or increase it to 90 minutes.

Dale, Faith and the Chief agreed – you need an area where there’s turnover.

Brendon related that people say to him, it must be nice that the town gives you one hour spaces right in front of your restaurant. He wants people to know he had nothing to do with it but of course it works well for them.

Other Observations:

Brendon felt the Brewer-leased lot was underutilized until clamming started, - then it was used according to the tides. He felt a lot of the tickets were given to Lunch & Lobster customers who parked in that lot. What bothered him is that the Brewer lot could be empty, but his business is serving customers until 9:00PM. He’d like to be able to tell people to go park in the lot if there are empty spaces. Maybe the permit only parking should be for during the day only?

He doesn’t think that the fishermen will pay for spots in the leased lot. They want to park up front. He doesn’t see segregating an area for them. Faith asked if Brendon thought they’d consider being part of a lottery. He didn’t think so.


Next Steps:

o Meet from 6:30-8:30 the next 2-3 sessions.
o Next meetings: October 10, October 30, November 13
o The suggestion is to skip December and finalize recommendation to go to the Council in January.
o Dale suggested going to the Traffic & Parking Committee with the draft Long Term Recommendations so they could comment and ask questions.
o Schedule Suggestion:
o Get our ideas down, findings, recommendations
o Send them to Traffic & Parking as a draft
o Invite T&P to meet with us and provide input
o Fine tune our recommendations based on that input
o Go to public (when? In January? How many weeks before do they need to know about a meeting?) and ask for input
o Fine tune our recommendations based on that input
o Finalize recommendations
o Present to Council

Next Meeting – October 10th
o Discuss the Brewer’s Lot Data
o Discuss allowing residents to lease out parking on their properties. Restrictions required.
o Discuss the 1 hour parking ordinance and the override
o Brainstorm other long term parking ideas
o Talk about inviting the public to a special meeting
o Discuss how to bring in Traffic & Parking

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM.