WATERVILLE, Maine — As Waterville has worked to revitalize its downtown and improve aesthetics and safety, parking has grown into a major issue.
Waterville is nearing the end of a more than $11 million downtown revitalization project that began in partnership with Colby College in 2014 and is planning for the next phase.
The lack of parking is a natural consequence of Waterville’s revitalization along Main Street and the surrounding area that has added structures such as the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons — apartment-style residences for 200 students and faculty — that opened in fall 2018 and led to the loss of 90 parking spaces. Going from one- to two-way traffic on Main and Front streets will mean from 58 to 63 parking spots will disappear, Mayor Jay Coelho said. And at the public library, parking has been an issue for years.
Businesses along the downtown streets rely on ample parking to entice customers into their shops. Without that, business owners worry that potential customers will go elsewhere to shop.
As Waterville and Colby College move into another phase of planning — which City Manager Stephen Daly said will take nine months and include public input — parking is at the top of everyone’s mind, according to city officials.
“I’ve had a few [complaints], but at the end of the day, it’s always evolving,” Coelho said. “I know Colby is coming up with a new study to help us figure out some resolutions to parking. We’re a bustling downtown. You’re always going to have an issue with parking.”
The partners will also explore traffic movement downtown, mixed-use development and how to create a safe walkway from the RiverWalk at Head of Falls to Main Street, among other things, Daly told the Bangor Daily News last month.
Building a parking garage in Waterville is inevitable, Coelho said, but he doesn’t want the city to own it. A garage, which the mayor suggested could include a portion of the downtown concourse, should be privately owned so taxpayers aren’t responsible for the cost, he said.
“There’s got to be give and take,” he said. Residents have given a lot during the city’s transformation, and they want to get something back — which is painless, convenient parking.
Parking is more challenging on certain days of the week, like Thursday when the farmers market sets up near the RiverWalk, said Rebecca Green, Waterville City Council chair. The RiverWalk is a more desirable location now, so more people appreciate and use the space, including the associated parking lot.
Construction of the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons also means 200 more Colby College students and faculty are downtown.
“The idea was that they would take the shuttle to campus,” Green said. “That’s happening for some, but not quite at the level that was anticipated.”
Green wants to see the city explore public transportation or something that’s less of a burden on the climate crisis and could be accessible to residents who don’t have reliable ways of getting around, she said.
Councilors and city officials have met with Cindy Jacobs, president of the Waterville Public Library’s board of trustees, to discuss parking options. The library has no designated parking except for six spaces behind the building, she said. Patrons tend to use three other spaces in the front, along Appleton Street, but they are municipal spaces and not strictly for library use.
Approximately 300 to 400 patrons use the library daily, so the building really needs 25 to 35 parking spots to accommodate them, Jacobs said. Eighty percent of patrons are under the age of 5 or older than 60, and elderly people are asked to walk around the block to access the entrance now on Appleton Street, she said.
“This time around, we absolutely, positively need to get same-side-of-street parking,” she said. “It just doesn’t work. It’s unsafe.”
The library has conducted parking surveys for eight or nine years, though not in the last few years, Jacobs said. They have asked how frequently patrons visit, how long it takes them, their mode of transportation and other questions.
Patrons on bicycles often park on the library’s patio and lock the bikes to the railing, which is a fire hazard, so employees have to ask them to move, Jacobs said. The nearest bicycle rack is across the street on the concourse, where there are parking spaces but fewer than several years before as a result of revitalization efforts.
“I’m eager to find a solution for the library without waiting nine months and however much longer until we can get something built or whatever the result is,” Green said.
She and other councilors have supported the library’s request that the city provide more parking near the building, which is closed due to renovations but allows patrons to order and pick up books.
Green and Coelho think it’s the right move to allow consultants to research and present the city with options on how to move forward. A parking committee, which Coelho said disbanded sometime last year, tried to tackle the issue and didn’t come up with viable solutions.
Investment in Waterville — from Colby College, GHM Insurance Agency owner Bill Mitchell and others — is paying dividends, Coelho said.
“You want people to continue to come,” he said. “You don’t want a bottleneck. We keep growing. We’re getting more residents. If we don’t figure out parking downtown, everything else that we’ve done would be moot.”
