UPDATED: Steve's Quality Market Fighting City Hall Over Parking Meters

at 36 Margin St. has collected almost 3,000 signatures in opposition to plans by the city of Salem to replace signs that limit parking to 15 minutes in spaces in front and beside the store with four-hour parking meters.

“We are humbled and overwhelmed at the response,” said Jodie Fenton, who is part of the family that has owned the market for more than 100 years. “People who are not even customers come in and ask to sign the petition.”

She said the market started the petition drive because “All we want to do is stay in business.”

Fenton said she believes that the number of signatures on the petition should force the City Council to consider changing the parking plan near the store, neighboring stores and the nearby U.S. Post Office.

This spring the city began implementing a new citywide parking plan that the council approved last June. The plan, drafted over almost two years by a working group of planning officials, downtown business owners, residents and the consultants, implemented several new facets to Salem parking – all designed in theory to free up more parking spaces and move some longer-term parkers to cheaper lots.

The plan also created four-hour parking downtown, which is where Steve's Quality Market has run into problems.  

Customers, particularly the elderly, need to park close to the store and come in for a quick shopping trip, Fenton said. “Someone parking in front of Steve's for even half an hour — never mind four hours — is detrimental to our livelihood,” she wrote in a letter.

The family believes that the four-hour meters will not allow the turnover in parking spaces that allows customers to shop there conveniently.

“We need the turnover,” Fenton said.

The family that includes her father and her siblings, who have worked in the store for most of their lives, said neither their store nor any of the neighboring stores – , , Extra Effort Exercise Studio and — were not notified by the city about the new meters. When the family learned that the meters were being installed, they called City Hall only to be told they should have voiced their concerns at one of the public meetings on the parking plan.

“We work in the store from 4:30 to 11 at night. We didn't want to take time to go a meeting that we thought didn't involve us,” Fenton said.

They were told the store is part of downtown Salem and all of downtown is included in the new parking plan that is being rolled out starting this spring.

“We have never considered our store as part of downtown,” Fenton said.

Salem means a lot to the store, and the store has meant a lot to Salem, she said. Steve's Quality Market has generously supported the town and employs a lot of people. “We have been good ambassadors for Salem,” she said.

For those reasons, Fenton believes the city should take another look at the parking plan at the store.

What do you think about the issue? Let us know in the comments.

Wednesday Morning Update:

Responding to complaints from Steve's Quality Market and other local businesses, Ward 2 Councilor Michael Sosnowski has drafted a council order to have his committee on ordinances, licenses and legal affairs to review the city's plan to install four-hour meters in front of the stores.

“My intent is to get these ridiculous meters removed from this location and the (U.S.) post office as well,” he wrote in an email Wednesday.

The issue will go to the full council on Thursday, he said.