Melissa Bailey Photo
Ken McGill shows Alice how to use a meter.
To fill a budget hole, the city wants people to start feeding parking meters until midnight — prompting protests from downtown restaurateurs who feed customers until midnight.
Parking meters currently charge only up to 7 p.m., Monday to Saturday. The extended hours, which the city plans to implement this summer, are part of an overall parking plan that aims to bring in $1.4 million in city revenue. The plan is part of a budget that’s up for a vote by the Board of Aldermen Monday evening.
The idea was first publicly floated at an aldermanic finance committee meeting last week. Proponents see it as an alternative to property tax hikes or devastating cuts, as well as a step in a progression toward “smarter” parking that will eventually allow people to receive text messages while they’re out on the town if their meter is about to expire.
The news sent a ripple of discontent, according to Town Green Special Services Director Rena Masten Leddy. She said she’s been fielding complaints from people who run businesses and own property downtown.
“It’s just one more impediment against business,” she said of the parking meter plan.
“It’s harder to do business downtown than it is in a suburban shopping center,” she said. “The Town Green board really feels that if we’re going to continue to encourage businesses to come downtown, and support the commerce center of our city, we need to do things to help our business community. … We have to make sure parking is accessible, affordable, attractive and convenient.
“The biggest concern is that the businesses have had a tough couple of years with the recession, and add to that a tough winter. There are many businesses downtown that are sort of on the brink — just holding on.”
She said the most concerns have come from restaurants. Two years ago, New Haven was the only foodie destination around. Now restaurants face competition from new foodie spots in other towns, Leddy said. Parking is just “another obstacle for these guys to combat.”
Leddy sent a letter to Aldermanic President Carl Goldfield Thursday asking him to oppose the plan.
Jean Pierre Vuillermet (pictured), owner of the Union League Cafe at 1032 Chapel St., said he’ll join Leddy in lobbying aldermen to vote down the proposal.
He said while some customers come from New Haven and Yale, a “good percentage” from as far away as Fairfield County and New York City.
“A lot of people don’t want to come in New Haven because they don’t want to pay for parking,” he said. Extending the hours of parking meters will add to that problem, he said.
Vuillermet, who’s owned the restaurant since 1993, lives on the shoreline. He said people out there read negative headlines about New Haven, and he has a hard time convincing them to come downtown. “They’re afraid of the city,” he said.
“If they hear they have to pay for the extra hours,” he said, that’s one less reason to make the trip.
Vuillermet said he’s also concerned for his 45 employees, some of whom can’t afford to pay for a spot in a parking garage. Those who work the night shift will now have to pay a lot more for on-street parking, he pointed out.
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Jim Travers (at left in photo), the city’s traffic czar, said the new hours will be implemented only in parking spots that have new parking meters that take credit cards. The city currently has a few on Chapel Street and Broadway and plans to add hundreds more. Over the objections of one West Rock alderman, the city recently approved bonding for $550,000 to install almost 300 credit card-accepting meters downtown.
Travers said the meters will be installed by the end of the summer. The roll-out of the new hours will be gradual.
First passersby would see new parking meters installed downtown, keeping the same hours, Travers said. “Then what we’ll do, I’ll have some meetings with merchants and we’ll talk about these things. I have a strong retail background … We’re going to do it as a team.”
The midnight hours would be Monday through Saturday, excluding Sundays and holidays.
“We’ll come up with changes that work for everyone,” Travers said.
On-street parking makes up only 20 percent of the overall parking downtown.
Most of the downtown parking — 80 percent — is in garages and lots, Travers said. “So there was never a guarantee that you were going to come downtown and park for free anyway. The likelihood was against you.” It’s more likely that you’d find all the spots full and have to park in a private lot or garage, he argued.
The new meters will comprise about one third of the city’s total parking meter supply, in the core central downtown. Those who don’t want to pay after 7 p.m. can leave their cars at the old meters, further away from downtown.
The old meters work like an alarm clock — you put in coins or pre-paid cards, and a timer goes off after one or two hours.
Travers said the new meters will allow for “dynamic” parking: While cars are prohibited from staying in a spot over two hours in daytime hours, that prohibition would be lifted after 5 p.m., and people would be able to stick in a credit card and pay through midnight in one fell swoop.
Travers said at $1.50 per hour, on-street parking will remain a good deal. “Ultimately we’re not charging more than what private operators are charging for parking.” Seven hours, from 5 p.m. to midnight, would be $10.50. By comparison, drivers pay $8 to $10 in a parking garage, whether they’re there an hour or five hours.
Further down the road, Travers said, the city aims to add nifty features to the “smart meters.” For example, the parking meter could send you a text message when your time’s up, and you could replenish the meter by text message.
He said the goal is to create a more flexible system that serves both daytime and nighttime parkers.
City parking meters, which cost $1.50 per hour, took in between $3.7 and $4.1 million in fiscal years 2008, 2009 and 2010. The new meters and the extended hours should bring in an extra $1.4 million in revenue per year, Travers estimated.
Back on Chapel Street, Vuillermet was asked if he thought any customer would cancel a downtown trip due to the new meter fees.
“It’s hard to say,” he responded.
He chuckled when asked if he’d prefer a property tax to a hike in meter fees. “I don’t like to make this choice,” he replied.
Further down Chapel, Ken McGill was parking outside China King on the Green, en route to take his 4‑year-old daughter to a ballet recital at the Shubert theater. Before she hit the stage, he gave her a lesson in how to pay for a parking meter using a city-issued pre-paid parking card. He hoisted her up to parking-meter level.
“Push the button,” he gently directed.
McGill, of Westville, was asked about the possibility of feeding that meter until midnight.
“That would be a bit inconvenient, but that’s about it,” he said. “It was nice that the meters stopped at 7 o’clock, but I don’t think it’s going to make a major difference.”
Thomas MacMillan contributed reporting.