Letter: There Are Good Alternatives To A New Downtown Parking Garage. Let’s Explore Them
Artists conception of scale of proposed garage facing North Prospect Street Homes. Drawing: Pamela Rooney
The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council, Town Manager, Planning Staff and Planning Board on August 18, 2023.
As Amherst tries to figure out the problem of parking downtown, may I suggest:
- Instead of paying millions of dollars to either expand the Boltwood parking structure, or build a new garage on North Prospect Street, might we first implement the suggestions made by the last parking study, which concluded the downtown has ample parking, nearing capacity only at peak dinner times. Informal studies by neighbors on North Prospect showed that that parking lot wasn’t full even on a busy night at the Drake, when students were in town.
- If the problem has worsened since that study, because five-story dorms are built with little or no parking, how about Archipelago builds its own parking for those residents, away from town, and provide a shuttle for their residents to get to and from the parking. It seems the plan for a North Prospect Street garage (in a local historic district!) is planned mainly to accommodate those five- story dorms’ residents.
- How about the town have a dedicated bus that continuously stops downtown and at the village centers, so that people can park at the village centers and take a bus to town? That would alleviate parking pressures downtown, as well as pump some more life into the village centers.
Please explore these ideas, and consider that an additional parking lot downtown will help the developers of parking-less private dorms. This is why it’s good to include in the thinking process those without any ulterior motive, except to maintain a downtown that is usable by all our community and visitors.
Ira Bryck
Ira Bryck has lived in Amherst since 1993, ran the Family Business Center for 25 years, hosted the “Western Mass. Business Show” on WHMP for seven years, now coaches business leaders, and is a big fan of Amherst’s downtown.
Great suggestions! I’ve been complaining about a double standard of Amherst requiring landlords to provide adequate parking, but allowing Archipelago to charge outrageous rents without adequate parking . Why must everyone’s taxes pay for them? Good point!
When the 5 story buildings were originally approved, the planning board expressed that those students wouldn’t bring cars, because there’s no parking. That seemed wrong, and turns out IS wrong.
When I suggest Archipelago pay for that lot, I mean to say anyone else who builds dorms downtown without parking should pay into that private system. There are other aspirations, including already permitted plans, for more 5 story buildings, from other developers.
Imagine if, for the cost of 1 bus, you could park at any of Amherst’s village centers, and get to other village centers and downtown. Good for the planet, good for downtown, good for parents whose kids could walk or bike to the nearest bus stop at a village center, and good for village center, who might get new business from people who park there and discover what there is at each of them.
I hope the town leaders and planners might be interested in pursuing this. Just because it wasn’t suggested by a town councilor doesn’t disqualify it.
While I agree that a parking garage on North Pleasant St. should be a non-starter, I have to say as a resident of North Amherst Village Center that we don’t want no stinkin’ cars parked on our residential side streets all day so that students can get out of paying for parking at the UNIVERSITY, which has parking lots with spaces in them. That’s where the shuttle bus should run.
Hi, Jessica, I think that if students got on the bus at North Amherst Village Center, and the route was then to all the other village centers, and ending at the south end of downtown, it would not be an attractive option. In the afternoon it could be reversed, so also the long way around.
Also, umass now acknowledges that on campus parking is readily sold out, so not everyone who wants a spot gets a spot.
Imho, UMass should only enroll what the traffic will bear. When it hurts the host town, they have crossed a line. And continue to do so, without a care.
These are sensible solutions. The City of New Haven has a continuous free Downtown Shuttle. Yale operates a shuttle bus from their campus through the Downtown to the train station. Why not connect satellite parking lots with PVTA bus routes or ask PVTA to adjust routes? A bus ride can be a few short blocks or longer. And for PVTA this is ridership whether a quick ride or a longer ride. PVTA should consider smaller buses for shorter routes. Since Amherst is restricted by budget and tax issues it is hard to justify an expensive parking garage. It would be WRONG to build a parking garage when the Fire House and DPW Facilities are not being built. Building a parking garage is a major expense and maintaining it is another expense as the years go by. New Haven has signs throughout their Downtown that cite the walking distances to Downtown destinations, shops and offices. So this encourages walking. Another suggestion is to make satellite parking lots free and inner downtown lots not free. Although people will pay to park at any price so perhaps restricting or limiting parking is the most effective way to steer parking demand or storage to where it is best. Amherst has a walkable downtown in terms of distances. And that is a great asset. Building a garage is also an unsightly structure. Rochester has municipal garages that are camoflaged to look like buildings and it works. Williamsburg VA has brick exterior garages with trays and containers for vegetation which flows off the decks. Very nice to see. But garages are also a financial operation issue. And no private garages! Theses companies are out for profit only and not efficiency – fair pricing – and aesthetics. We should build a fire house and DPW facility first.
Another comment is that private parking garages offer alluring but costly financial plans to relieve towns of the construction expenses but then ownership and overly long leases are surrendered in return. In many states, privatization of transit assets such as highways is a controversial issue with many pros and cons. If there is revenue and profit to be made from taxpayer assets then let those profits go the town and its financial needs. Not to the LAZ Parking Corporation.