A proposed revamping of the paid parking system in downtown Haverhill could cost motorists twice as much if passed by the Haverhill city council.
The council is expected to debate Tuesday night a proposal to expand paid parking hours in the downtown along with fee increases, including a proposed doubling of the on-street parking rate from 50 cents to $1 per hour.
According to city documents, Haverhill parking Consultant John Burke and the Central Business District Parking Commission support a plan to “simplify / standardize” the downtown parking system. It calls for ensuring it is self-sustaining by, in addition to a doubled on-street parking rate, to increase the off-street parking rate from 50 to 75 cents per hour. Also, the hours for all paid parking areas would be uniformly set between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. The plan would also consider an option of paid parking on Saturday in the future.
Under a proposed city ordinance, other parking fee schedule provisions include increasing various “daily maximum” rates, from the current low of $2 to $6, a $6 maximum would increase to $7.50 and an $8 maximum would rise to $10.
Other measures under the new system proposal would replace manual ticket writing by parking enforcement workers with a handheld wireless system integrated with the city’s pay station, permit parking and pay-by-phone systems.
Mayor James J. Fiorentini has also recommended the proposed ordinance, placed on file by the council on March 18, be approved.
The Haverhill city council meets at 7 p.m., Tuesday, in council chambers at Haverhill City Hall.
The Mayor says this proposal didn’t come from him but he supports it. So you want us to believe that the both of you NEVER spoke about this beforehand ?? C’mon Mr. Mayor, I was born at night but not last night ! Then, they want to raise the off street fee from .50 to .75 ??? That’s like the post office raising the cost of stamps to .49 when they should have just gone to .50 and leave us alone for a while. Why not just go to a dollar and do the same ? Maybe this will only take 5 years to figure out.
Have we gotten an accounting of where the money has gone so far ??
50 cents v a $1 would not stop me from shopping or eating in a Haverhill restaurant. We get Boston-quality clothing, arts, and dining for such a lower cost that I support local spending.
It’s stupid. With all the new businesses going in downtown along with increased parking rates is just going to result in no one shopping downtown and those businessss won’t be able to survive. How about mr mayor take some money out of his own pocket to pay for this? He’s got the money… He needs to go. We need a new mayor now!
Gee, I think we all knew this day would come the moment the program was put in place. Increased fees are the Fiorentini way….
This is absolutely asinine!!! Here the city is making the downtown area nice, and new businesses are moving in….Now people are going to think twice about patronizing those establishments because of the price of parking….Plain stupid!!!!
anher bad idea from a mayor WHO MUST GO
WHAAAT? Double the price of parking in Haverhill? Outrageous!
I am convinced the so-called experts who manage the Haverhill parking system are no more qualified to do this than I am. Granted, the parking system is all screwed up with different rules for sections of town, but why not make the system uniform and leave it at that; and are these “experts” really worth the rake-off that they charge for managing the system?
Newburyport charges fifty cents (.50) per hour, the MBTA charges $4.00 to $7.00 per day which also translates to about fifty cents per hour. So how, pray tell, is parking in Haverhill worth $1.00 per hour? Haverhill definitely is NOT a destination city, and the only folks who come to Haverhill are the people who live here and commuters.
I have called all of the businesses that I frequent in the downtown area to tell them they should seriously consider moving to a site that includes parking for their business. I, for one, am sick and tired of looking for a parking space, trying to find a nearby kiosk, trying to figure out the rules of that particular parking space, etc.
How long did it take for the Mayor and the council to adopt this plan….10 years give or take ? After all that time screwing around, they adopted the plan knowing what revenue was needed to make the program successful. Now that it is not bringing in ENOUGH money to satisfy their needs, they want to DOUBLE the price ? Can anyone do math ? Is the Mayor going to develop a parking plan for his Pot Store Plan ? THAT would bring in some revenue !
There is no tax, no fee, no dollar left unspent that The Mayor, Beacon Hill, or CONgress will not come after. As The People earn less, your government wants to take evermore the fruits of your labor. This is not indicative of just Democrats, Republicans are as bad as Democrats, but in Massachusetts, Democrats are to blame entirely as they are in charge of doing our families economic harm.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=15Tz