Montclair’s Parking Fees Will Rise, But Are Other Changes Looming?

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Meter fees are about to rise in Montclair, but there may be some other changes to the township’s parking landscape looming in the future.

Earlier this month, the Montclair Township Council approved an increase in the hourly cost of the municipality’s parking meters to a dollar per hour. The change raised the hourly fee from 50 cents in parking lots and 75 cents for on-street spots.

"I don't think there's any one set thing that's going to be good for all of Montclair," stated 4th Ward Councilwoman Renée Baskerville, the lone dissenting vote in the council’s decision. "In the areas where parking is underutilized, and we're trying to get people off of the streets and into a parking lot, the increase is something that may not be in the best interest of everybody."

The parking meter change was one of the council’s first parking policy changes since the release of the Nelson Nygaard Consulting Associates “Montclair Parking Management Plan,” a set of recommended parking management strategies completed in June at the behest of the municipality.

Read the full management plan online here.

A rate change to a $1 on-street hourly rate was one of several recommendations that the parking study suggested for Montclair. Nelson Nygaard also recommended that a “premium rate” of $1.25 or $1.50 should be applied to locations with high parking demand, starting with prime blocks within Upper Montclair and Montclair Center such as Valley Road, Bellevue Avenue, Bloomfield Avenue, Glenridge Avenue, Church Street, The Crescent, Park Street, Fullerton Avenue, Seymour Street, Willow Street, Lackawanna Plaza and Greenwood Avenue.

Other ideas in the study include:

• Formalize a Performance-Focused Pricing Policy – “An expanding number of cities has begun to set and adjust parking rates, particularly for short-term parking, based on observed demand levels and patterns,” the study states. “The idea behind this approach is that drivers will respond to higher and lower parking costs by altering where they seek to park.”
• Adjust Rates to Attain/Maintain Target Performance – “Ideal utilization levels for on-street parking leave one or two spaces open on each block — just enough so that the empty spaces are apparent to drivers seeking a space,” the study claims.
• Re-Align Meter Schedules with Demand Peaks – “On-street meters are currently enforced from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” the study states. “However, demand in Upper Montclair and Montclair Center is beginning to gravitate toward evening-based activity, such as dining, entertainment, and social gatherings… As such, parking demand patterns have shifted away from a workday schedule, toward a midday to evening/nighttime schedule. Under a performance-based pricing management approach, the schedule for enforcing meter payments should be adjusted likewise.”
• Minimize Use of 1-Hour Time Limits – “As commercial centers continue to evolve into destination districts, limiting parking to one hour will increasingly be too restrictive to accommodate visitor parking needs and preferences,” the study states.
• Consider a Parking Benefit District Approach – “The Parking Benefit District (PBD) approach can help generate stakeholder support for performance-focused pricing,” the study claims. “Under a PBD approach, parking revenue that exceeds the cost of maintaining the parking system is dedicated to improving local sidewalks, streetscapes, shuttle bus service, bike parking and traffic calming efforts.”
• Promote Public Parking via On-Site Signage – “This should include identifying the presence of public parking at lot entrances, and changing lot-interior signs, which mark spaces as Permit Parking Only, to reflect the 10 a.m. transition to hourly parking,” the study states.

Photo: Eric Kiefer

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