Stoughton Selectmen Begin Short Term Center Parking Solutions

STOUGHTON, MA — Short term projects in Stoughton Center are underway with the intent to improve parking.

At last Wednesday's Board of Selectmen meeting, Interim Town Manager Marc Tisdelle provided an update to the Board. He said the short term solutions suggested in the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's study will start being addressed now.

"A lot of these studies just sit out on a shelf," said Tisdelle. "So, we wanted to get it off the shelf and start with the short-term improvements right away."

The MACP's study suggested adding signage to and re striping the parking at existing municipal lots. Tisdelle said adding signage to the Freeman Street lot is a priority because there are people who don't know it's a town parking lot.

The Selectmen want to increase awareness at lots like the one at Freeman Street as way to improve the usage of the existing available parking.

According to Selectwoman Christine Howe, and as seen in the chart below, Stoughton Center's parking lots are only about 60 percent full during peak hours. Forty percent of the spots are still available even during peak hours.

Howe said, "Ideally, you want to be around 85 percent, so we're well below the ideal threshold in terms of parking usage."

There's also a plan in place to re stripe Freeman Steet's parking spaces as well as re striping the spaces at Railroad Avenue. Tisdale said they will add numbers to the 20 spaces to use for future municipal permit parking.

According to Tisdelle , people will be given a map to their specific number spot. Tisdelle said, "The same philosophy will be used at the Rose Street parking lot."

Other projects to improve parking in Stoughton Center will take place in the future and are still under consideration from the Board of Selectmen.

Tisdelle said, "We are moving forward with it, we'll keep moving forward with it and we won't stop until it's completed."

In total, Tisdelle said there was about ten recommendations MACP identified in its study. Many of those changes involved reshuffling the towns current parking assets. The suggestions include:

• Move town hall employee parking from the Stoughton Town Hall lot to the Rose Street parking lot.
• Reallocate some if not all the town hall spaces for short-term parking.
• Eliminate commuter permits for Rose Street lot.
• Direct commuters to the MBTA parking lot.