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Downtown retailers press committee for parking relief after daytime-hours enforcement; committee proposes flexible 9-hour window
Summary
Retail business owners told the Parking Committee that a newly enforced 6 p.m. daytime cutoff is increasing costs and operational difficulty for employees. The committee proposed a potential flexible nine-hour window for business accounts and agreed to work with Colonial Parking to draft options and verify lease entitlements for tenants.
Retail and manufacturing tenants in the town center urged the Parking Committee to consider exemptions or flexible options after enforcement of the daytime parking cutoff moved to 6 p.m.
Chris Curtin, owner of Cloud Chocolate, told the committee he has leased space in the borough for 20 years and said the 6 p.m. cutoff "is costing me over $20 because my staff is over 06:00." Curtin described production schedules that extend past 6 p.m., said employees typically leave around 6:30–6:40 p.m., and said a 24‑7 monthly pass for several employees would be a substantial cost.
Committee members said they want to support retail while preserving daytime-hour definitions used to maintain evening garage capacity for customers and visitors. Ramsey, the Parking Director, and other staff proposed a compromise: keep the daytime-hours definition (8 a.m.–6 p.m.) but allow a flexible nine-hour window tied to an employer account so a business could shift its nine-hour block (for example, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. or 10 a.m.–7 p.m.) without incurring overstay penalties. Staff said that if employees truly use the garage more than nine hours regularly, a 24‑7 pass would be the appropriate product.
Committee members also reviewed lease entitlements after Curtin raised the issue; a staff member noted Curtin’s lease includes a limited number of no-cost parking spaces, a point Curtin said he was not aware of and which reduced his immediate cost concern. Committee members asked Colonial Parking and staff to draft a consistent policy to allow flexible business-account windows and to clarify how many pass allocations are included in municipal leases. Staff said they would work with Colonial to design an administrative process and communicate options to affected businesses.
No formal ordinance change or vote was recorded; the committee instructed staff to return with policy language and implementation details at a future meeting.
