Danvers Downtown Parking Limit Cut To 15 Minutes On Locust Street

DANVERS, MA — Downtown parking limits in Danvers are about to get a lot short on a section of Locust Street.

The Danvers Select Board voted to follow the Traffic Advisory Commission's recommendation to cut the time limit for five spots on the commercial street from two hours down to 15 minutes to help facilitate turnover for the businesses on the street.

The Board's vote was 3-2 with Select Board member Gardner Trask arguing changing the parking times could benefit some businesses to the detriment of others — including a tea shop and salon that may require longer parking periods — and sets a precedent that the Select Board may now have to follow when other businesses request parking changes on adjacent and surrounding streets.

Select Board member Matt Duggan wanted the Board to consider downtown parking on a wider scale before making the change to these specific spots.

But the Board eventually sided with the businesses that said area employees parking on the main street for hours at a time were taking up valuable spots needed for customers. The spots are in the area of 24 Locust Street.

Businesses in the stretch include a corner grocery store, smoothie shop and sandwich shop.

"With those high-turnover businesses, the two-hour limit in front has been a detriment to getting people in and out quickly," Danvers Director of Land Use and Community Services Aaron Henry told the Select Board. "We've had some conversations with the property owner and business owners and DTAC reaffirmed their position last month that they would recommend 15-minute parking."

There is a parking lot across the street for those who need longer-term parking.

"For people who just want to run in and run out," Henry said, "if you can't park in front of the business you are looking to patronize it's not good enough and the businesses are receiving a lot of complaints and concerns from their customers that it's not convenient."

Trask's motion to have only three of the five spots redesignated as 15-minute spots did not receive a second and was not taken up for a vote.

"DTAC was unanimous to do all of them except for the handicapped (spot on the block) and I think we should support that," Select Board member Daniel Bennet said. "It will be monitored. It's an ongoing situation down there. But if we tell the people 15 minutes then hopefully that will work for them."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)