Parking stickers to combat commuter use of town lot

Daily News Transcript

By Amanda J. Mantone/ Daily News staff

May 12, 2006 - Updated: 01:26 AM EST


WALPOLE -- Downtown business owners and their employees could soon be required to get stickers to park their vehicles in one lot behind Main Street, as town officials crack down on commuter rail riders taking up parking spaces.
"We’re trying to work with Town Hall and with business owners to allow those people who park there as employees or as business owners to be accommodated, either by stickers or some other method," said Deputy Police Chief Scott Bushway. "We’re trying to resolve a problem, not target businesses. They want their customers to park there, and you can’t blame them."
He said police three weeks ago installed signs limiting parking to three hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the lot - which is behind Subway and Walpole Center Books - to deter commuters from leaving cars there all day.
"Unfortunately, in our enforcement, also in that group were a number of employees and business owners," the deputy chief said. "And that obviously was not the intent of the parking restriction."
The problem first came up at a March Board of Selectmen meeting, after business owners complained that commuters were filling parking spaces meant for customers and employees.
At the end of March, police imposed a three-hour parking limit. Anger from ticketed car owners was so great that by mid-April town officials and police decided to try another tack.
"We’ve relaxed our enforcement of (business owners), hoping only to identify those people who are using the commuter rail," said Bushway. "It wasn’t intended to encompass business owners."
Business owners, however, say the real problem now is on the street front, where a two-hour parking limit is scarcely enforced - allowing people who work downtown to park there all day, and forcing drive-by customers who might have stopped in to keep on going.
Selectman Catherine Winston told her board in April that the street-front parking time limits need to be more strictly enforced. Police Chief Richard Stillman said he would work to fix that problem in upcoming meetings with the town about the CBD lot.

But those meetings haven’t come soon enough for some Main Street businesses whose owners say they are taking their stores out of town because of parking problems.
Jim James, who owns Walpole Center Books, said he’s looking to move that shop to Medfield or Westwood, where most of his customers travel from to purchase his books.
"I have customers who come in and say they couldn’t find parking. It’s a real problem out front. I’m looking for a place with parking," said James. He said the parking shortage isn’t the only reason he’s leaving, but it has prompted other shop owners on the block - including Subway - to plan to sell.
"I’ve e-mailed police and walked into the station, but they just say they’ll look into it. They refuse to write tickets," he said. "It’s one of the top things that’s driving us out. It’s really what has killed retail down here."
Tom Morani, owner of Second Time Around Antiques and Collectibles, said he gets to work extra early each day to make sure he can find a spot in the rear lot and keep front spaces open for customers.
"You sometimes can’t get a space out here," said Morani, whose neighbor - Dickens Shoppe - recently closed down when owner Cora McGovern found she couldn’t put up with the lack of parking any longer. "She was always complaining that her customers could never find a space. I’d like it if there could be some kind of a restriction. (A sticker) would be OK with me."
Amanda J. Mantone can be reached at 781-433-8354 or amantone@cnc.com.