Concord Parking: Are Meters Hurting Local Businesses?

CONCORD, MA—Parking meters currently line many streets in Concord Center, but one longtime business owner believes that the meters are forcing business owners to move out of town.

Montague Gallery owner Bill Montague, who told Patch that he has owned Montague Gallery for 40 years, believes that parking meters are driving customers away from town businesses. Montague believes that in turn local business are opting for pastures without parking meters, citing that Maynard has lost businesses due to parking meters.

“If you go through Maynard it’s a ghost town,” Montague told Patch.”There are stores for rent all over the place. 40 years ago that was a shopping town, everyone would go there to shop.”

Montague also believes that out-of-town customers who are issued parking tickets will never return to local shops, and that meters are forcing customers out of stores when their payment is expiring.

“People will spend hours going from shop to shop,” Montague said.” Then they say ‘oh we have to leave, the meter is running out.’ Then they get a $15 ticket and say ‘we’ll never come back to this town again.’ Customer after customer has told me that.”

However, Concord Cheese Shop owner Peter Lovis is opposed to banning parking meters. While he added that he considers Montague a friend and a great retailer, he does not believe that customers are avoiding local businesses because of the meters.

“You can go back and feed the meter,” Lovis told Patch.”Meters are not from outer space. It’s not like people don’t understand them or people don’t think that they might be around. It’s a very common phenomenon in most towns.”

Montague also cited three open storefronts in Concord, saying that in the past business owners would line up to claim the open space. However, Lovis believes that the issue goes beyond the fact that customers would have to feed a parking meter.

“There’s the economy,” Lovis added.”There’s the business mix, it’s not because the mayor drives a blue car. It’s complicated, there’s a lot of moving parts.”

Lovis added that getting rid of the meters would invite employees of businesses to park for an extended period of time, limiting crucial parking making parking unavailable to customers.

The town also partnered up with the consulting firm Nelson Nygaard to help solve some of its parking issues, a venture that Lovis said the town invested heavily in.

“I don’t like wasting money if we’ve already paid an expert to give us an opinion,” Lovis said.”I think we should defer to the experts.”

A 2012-2013 study done by Nelson -Nygaard revealed that there was a lack of front-door customer access; that time limits of an hour hamper customer and visitor activity; there was confusion among visitors/tourists because of the lack of information about parking; and that there was a demand imbalance of commuter parking, according to the town website.

The town and the firm developed a parking plan to address the matter.

“I think the parking plan was well thought-out,” Concord Select Board member Steve Ng said at an October Select Board meeting according to Wicked Local Concord. “We got data from our consultants, as well as every major urban area, for allowing people to have turnover and access to spaces. The meters allow that to happen.“

However, Montague does not believe that the town has adequately addressed the needs of businesses in town. According to a report by Wicked Local Concord, fee increases from 50 cents to $1 per hour were proposed in September after consulting with Nelson-Nygaard.

Wicked Local Concord also reported a high of $90,000 in 2007 and a deficit of $142,482 in 2013 in parking meter revenues. Town Manager Tom Whelan noted that the deficit was driven by the replacing of old parking meters with new ones, according to the report.

“The Selectmen are trying to do what’s best for the town,”Montague said.”But you have to look at the affect that this is going to have on people.”