On May 18th, the Council will consider instituting time-limited parking on Waterville Street, a residential street on Munjoy Hill. If the change is approved, the currently unrestricted parking along the street will become 2-hr parking from 9am-6pm. However, there's an important catch:
Residents of the street who are eligible for parking permits are exempted from the hourly limits. So, residents who get permits will still be able to park on the street all day without risking a ticket. |
So then, you might wonder, what's the point?
One thing the time-limited parking WILL do is prevent people who aren't residents of Waterville Street from using it for all-day parking. So, when people commute into town for work, or come to day-trip in the Old Port or visit one of the islands, they'll have to find alternative parking, OR--the big payoff, in my opinion--find another way onto the peninsula instead of bringing a vehicle.
That's my big motivation for getting more resident parking programs in place around the City. Residential parking programs create restrictions around all-day parking for non-residents and thus help to incentivize transit ridership. carpooling, car-sharing, and alternative commuting methods like walking or biking. So, in addition to giving residents a better shot at finding parking on their streets, time-limited parking can, in the long-run, help to reduce the number of vehicles coming into Portland, specifically onto the peninsula.
Time-limited parking with resident exemptions already exists in many areas of the City, like the West End and the Old Port, and there are already residential parking zones set-up so that we can put more time-limited parking into place.
The parking change for Waterville Street was brought to the Council through a petition process the City has been working to fully implement. The Waterville Street parking petitions were a pilot to test this petition process, and the City is should be ready to fully implement the program soon so that other residents can petition for changes to parking on their streets.
Right now, the City's petition process is being evaluated by the Sustainability & Transportation Committee of the Council (on which I serve), and it is my hope that we will be able to move it to the Council for final approval soon. I am also hopeful that we will be able to take Council action to put residential parking programs in place in a larger area in the East End to speed up the process instead of waiting for it to happen street by street.
To get a parking permit, residents need to complete a resident parking application and submit it to the Parking Division. To learn more about residential parking in Portland, visit the Residential Parking Permit page.
That's my big motivation for getting more resident parking programs in place around the City. Residential parking programs create restrictions around all-day parking for non-residents and thus help to incentivize transit ridership. carpooling, car-sharing, and alternative commuting methods like walking or biking. So, in addition to giving residents a better shot at finding parking on their streets, time-limited parking can, in the long-run, help to reduce the number of vehicles coming into Portland, specifically onto the peninsula.
Time-limited parking with resident exemptions already exists in many areas of the City, like the West End and the Old Port, and there are already residential parking zones set-up so that we can put more time-limited parking into place.
The parking change for Waterville Street was brought to the Council through a petition process the City has been working to fully implement. The Waterville Street parking petitions were a pilot to test this petition process, and the City is should be ready to fully implement the program soon so that other residents can petition for changes to parking on their streets.
Right now, the City's petition process is being evaluated by the Sustainability & Transportation Committee of the Council (on which I serve), and it is my hope that we will be able to move it to the Council for final approval soon. I am also hopeful that we will be able to take Council action to put residential parking programs in place in a larger area in the East End to speed up the process instead of waiting for it to happen street by street.
To get a parking permit, residents need to complete a resident parking application and submit it to the Parking Division. To learn more about residential parking in Portland, visit the Residential Parking Permit page.
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