Downtown property owner urges council to secure parking before redeveloping 90‑stall lot

David Papy, a downtown property owner and presenter, told the Watertown Common Council on March 3 that decades of historical evidence and his own block‑by‑block survey show longstanding parking shortfalls in Watertown’s downtown and urged the council to preserve a 90‑stall lot until replacement parking is secured.

Papy said he purchased 107 East Main Street in 2023 and described researching local newspapers and records back to the 1850s. “When I bought my building in Watertown 3 years ago, I had a lot of plans,” Papy said. He criticized recent parking studies for sampling during unusually busy events and said he produced his own business‑to‑business evaluation that he estimated would have cost the city about $90,000 to commission. “I presented to the city and gave it to them on a platter,” Papy said, and asked the council to “have serious conversation…of how we are going to fix this.”

Papy asked the council to delay development of a recently proposed project that would remove a 90‑stall lot on North First Street until replacement parking “in amounts of 100 or 200 or 300 cars” is identified. He said that without replacement parking, upper‑floor redevelopment of historic buildings will be commercially unfeasible and that relying on a riverwalk alone would not guarantee increased business traffic.

Council members acknowledged Papy’s detailed research and debated the tradeoffs of building parking structures versus waiting for development momentum. Mr. Berg said the city is “addressing this topic” through street redesign work and by planning Main Street reconstruction for 2028 and added, “we are not going to do anything with that 90 stall parking lot on First Street until we have a feeling that there is alternate parking to address whatever we take away from that number.” Alderman Arnett and others discussed options including acquisition of blighted properties for surface parking and two‑way street conversions to improve circulation.

City staff and councilors also noted the practical challenges of funding and timing. One councilor recalled earlier proposals for a 200‑car parking structure estimated at about $5 million in 2018 and described the difficulty of convincing private investors to build parking ahead of tenant demand.

The council directed continued attention to the issue: the RDA (Redevelopment Authority) and relevant committees will keep parking on recurring agendas for further study and planning.

Why it matters: Downtown investors said the lack of reliable, nearby parking is a significant barrier to converting upper floors and attracting new businesses. The council’s choices about land reserves, acquisition and whether to plan publicly funded parking will affect private redevelopment plans, potential tax valuation increases and the design of the Riverwalk project.

Next steps: Councilors said the topic will remain on RDA and council agendas while the city advances Main Street planning and considers potential property acquisitions or design changes that could influence parking supply.