Opinion: Planning Needed Before Rezoning “CVS Lot” For Parking Garage

The following comments and analysis were sent to the Amherst Planning Board, Planning Department, Town Council and Town Manager on July 14, 2021.

The move to re-zone the town-owned portion of the parking lot colloquially known as the “CVS lot” is premature. I live across North Prospect Street and write from intimate knowledge of that lot and how it is and isn’t used. 

Here are the reasons for my opposition to the proposed rezoning and the steps that, I believe, should be taken before re-zoning this lot is considered:

1.  Follow the Advice of Your Consultants
As you know, consultants have studied Amherst’s parking situation extensively, most recently in 2015, 2016, and 2019.  All three studies found that Amherst does not actually have a downtown parking shortage, although they reported an anecdotal perception of such a shortage.  They recommended several steps that should be taken first, before undertaking construction of a garage.  These include negotiating with private lot owners to allow public parking on their lots at times when the lots are not needed for their own use, as well as better signage to inform visitors where parking is located.

The Town has already spent thousands of dollars on consultants with expertise on parking.  Their recommendations are consistent.  Why not follow these recommendations before investing millions of dollars — etven if they’re the dollars of a “private partner” like the BID—on building a garage.  Building unnecessarily is no the Green way to operate.

2. Use New Technologies to Overcome the Perception of Inadequate Parking
Newer technologies can help direct drivers to available parking. In Northampton, lighted signs at multiple locations indicate the number of vacant spaces currently available in the downtown parking garage.  Other towns expand such signs to include various parking locations. Apps exist for cellphones, to direct parkers. Such technology would make it easy for private lots to be opened up to public parking when they are available.  According to the Planning Director, the Town years ago discussed shared parking arrangements with some private owners, who weren’t interested at the time.  The Town should consider ways to make such arrangements more attractive (for example, shared revenues or tax rebates) and initiate conversations anew.

3. Use All Available Town-owned Garage, Meter and Lot Spaces for Short-term Parking
Don’t rent spaces in the Boltwood Garage on an annual basis—these should be used for transient parking.  If the signs directed visitors to them and the lighting were good, I feel certain that most people’s reservations about parking underground would soon evaporate.  This should at least be tried again.  Look at requiring landlords to make arrangements with private landowners if they don’t provide sufficient parking on-site for their tenants, and ask that leases specify the parking arrangements or lack thereof.  Do not issue Town Center parking permits to residents of apartment and multi-use buildings downtown.

4.  If a Garage is Still Needed, Study the Options and Collect Data, i.e. Plan!
If these lower-cost efforts do not succeed and the Town still deems a parking garage to be necessary, undertake a careful comparative analysis of various Town lots:  how many spaces would be possible on each, at what cost per space?   I will concede that the “CVS lot” is centrally located, but one concern is whether the Town portion would be sufficient for a parking garage; if not, how feasible would it be for the Town to eventually acquire the additional land needed for a garage at that location.  Additionally, the CVS lot is less than one block from the Amity Street lot and approximately two blocks from the Boltwood garage.  We are told that no one has inquired whether building up the Boltwood garage is structurally possible, given current building standards.  Let’s find out!  Improved parking on Pray Street could serve customers, downtown employees and visitors of a different section of downtown.  The Amity Street lot is the most-used, easy to find, and nearest the cinema, library, and future attractions in the planning stages.  It’s already zoned to permit a parking structure and has no residential abutters. Could Bank of America and People’s Bank work with the Town to create a larger garage here, with some spaces reserved for bank use?  Could the building at 24 South Prospect be acquired and its lot added to the mix, perhaps with new street-facing retail or offices on the ground floor?  Please look carefully at the pros and cons of all locations—don’t jump to conclusions.  That’s what good planning is all about.

5.  Consider Traffic Impacts
The “CVS lot” has some significant drawbacks.  Cowles Lane, Hallock Street, and North Prospect Street are narrow, residential streets with parking along one side.  The increased traffic associated with such a garage would be problematic.  If street parking spaces would need to be eliminated, the net gain of spaces from a garage would be lower, and workers with town center parking permits would have fewer “free” spaces available for their everyday use.  Entrance to the “CVS lot” is from a narrow access road between the CVS and the building that houses Miss Saigon and other small businesses, requiring a left turn across traffic by northbound cars on North Pleasant Street.  The town Planning Director has indicated that the access road would likely need to be widened for a garage.  Such a widening could jeopardize small businesses in the Miss Saigon building.  North Prospect Street is one-way southbound;  the increased traffic from the garage would impact it and other nearby streets, including Amity, Lincoln Avenue, and South Prospect.  Truck deliveries to the CVS (which are many) and its dumpsters and compactors will still need to be accommodated.  Truck deliveries to Bruegger’s, which already make navigating Cowles Lane a challenge, also need to be considered in thinking about traffic management.

6. Consider the Surrounding Built Environment
The lot is flanked on its two long sides and across North Prospect on the west by properties zoned R-G.  To the north is the parish hall of St. Brigid’s Church, and to the south is the “real” CVS parking lot, which contains no structure.  The west side of North Prospect is part of the North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District.  Historic houses there are largely 2 1/2-story buildings from the 1850s to 1890s.  In this sensitive context, a parking structure that is higher than that permitted by current B-L zoning  (which is being challenged as I write by a proposed overlay in two downtown B-L zones) would be jolting and contrary to customary urban planning practice.  Councilor George Ryan, a sponsor of the measure to re-zone the Town “CVS lot”, reassured me in writing that he would not countenance anything taller than three stories, and Dorothy Pam, by urging a B-L designation, is essentially echoing that view.  The lot slopes downhill by 8 ft. from North Prospect to North Pleasant, raising the possibility of a garage having an additional half-level going east.  Still, planners should consider the aesthetics of having a taller garage visible from the “main drag,” looming over the one-story CVS and 2 1/2-story building that houses Miss Saigon, or the St. Brigid’s Rectory next door, an important work by Roswell Field Putnam that is in the Massachusetts Historical Commission’s register of historic cultural resources and is featured in several guides to Amherst architecture.  Would there still be a tree barrier to shield the garage from the houses on North Prospect, and how high a barrier is feasible?  Since a 20-ft setback is required where a B-G property abuts an R-G one, i.e. on the north and south edges of the lot, would B-G zoning actually provide for more parking spaces than B-L? 

7.  Study and Review Current CVS Parking Lot Use Patterns
The CVS portion of the lot offers free parking for customers, while the Town portion charges.  Regularly, the CVS portion has many more parked cars (more than there are customers in the CVS at the time) than the Town portion, which is very thinly used except for occasional Saturday nights and times when there is a festival or other event in town.  This lot is never full—before Covid or now, and was mostly empty during Covid.  This pattern has been well documented in past downtown parking studies, and it has persisted over the many years that I’ve lived across the street and had occasion to observe the lot and walk through it.  Friends have unashamedly spoken about parking in one of the free CVS spaces, rather than paying to park in the Town portion.  We humans are cheap by nature.  Will people pay to use the garage if it is built next door to a free lot? 

8.  Perform a Thorough Community Impact Analysis, Consulting Widely with Residents, Businesses, and Abutters. 
Share the analysis and its methodology with citizens.  This is “open government to the max.”

9.  Then, If It Still Seems Advisable, Seek Approval to Re-zone the Lot.
Provide written language to reassure neighbors that the Town is authorizing this change exclusively for construction of a parking garage that will be available to the public for short-term parking, and that it won’t turn around and sell the re-zoned lot or use it for a different purpose.  Promise not to use the new zoning of this parcel as a precedent to re-zone other properties on the block.

Suzannah Fabing Muspratt is a resident of Amherst.