Free downtown holiday parking begins Dec. 17 in Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH – The City Council voted to approve free on-street holiday parking in the downtown from Saturday, Dec. 17 through Monday, Dec 26.

“We hope residents and visitors will take advantage of this and support Portsmouth’s wonderful local small businesses, restaurants and non-profits,” City Councilor Andrew Bagley, who made the motion, said during Monday night’s council meeting.

The three-hour time limit at on-street parking meters will still be enforced in order to provide turnover at the meters and bring more people downtown.

Mayor Deaglan McEachern acknowledged that free holiday parking “is a loser on city revenues” and added “it might be a loser on turnover for the downtown.”

But he maintained that when city residents and visitors to Portsmouth get free parking, they walk into city stores and restaurants with a “feeling of gratitude.”

He added that he hopes that people will “spend a little more” in downtown shops and restaurants because of the initiative.

“It’s not because we just want people downtown. We want them feeling jolly downtown, going into the businesses, spending money and thinking they got something … for free,” McEachern said during Monday’s council meeting.

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The council voted 7-1 to approve the downtown parking holiday, with City Councilor Beth Moreau casting the lone vote against the initiative.

The council’s vote this week came after a lengthy discussion about the topic at one of their November meetings, and how much they should try to let tourists know about the free parking.

Bagley commented at the time that “it’s become the feeling of the city that the best way to handle this is to kind of push this out through the council meeting, possibly an article in the newspaper, out on social media (or) on the city website, so that locals know they don’t have to pay during this week.”

“But if you were say coming up from Boston, you’d have no idea and you’d continue to pay for parking,” Bagley said during the November meeting. “It’s a bit inelegant, but it does two things: one it gives locals the chance to not pay for parking, and two it doesn’t hurt city revenues that much because people from Boston are going to continue to pay for parking.”

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McEachern said in November that that approach “seems kind of disingenuous to have parking that’s free except if you didn’t watch this council meeting tonight.”

The issue did not come up during Monday’s council discussion, but McEachern stressed that city staff should advertise the downtown parking meter holiday.

Moreau told her fellow councilors she would oppose the motion before the vote was taken.

“We don’t seem to have a problem getting people to come downtown,” she said. “We are giving up a lot of money to do so. I get the tradition, we’ve always done it, but it’s a big hit to our revenue.”

She added she loves Christmas, but “I’m going to be bah humbug on this one.”

Assistant Mayor Joanna Kelley thanked Bagley for making the motion.

“I think it’s so vital to bringing people downtown, also as a reward for some residents to get them downtown during the holiday season,” she said about the parking holiday. “ … it’s a tradition the city’s done for the last few years and we should make sure that we keep it going.”

“I think it’s very important for morale,” Kelley added.

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City Councilor Kate Cook suggested that before next year’s discussion on holiday parking begins the council could work on an “education program.”

The program, Cook said, could educate businesses and residents so they “understand what parking enforcement actually does for businesses, why it improves turnover, why it improves shopping downtown because there is more turnover.”

As a potential alternative to free on-street parking, the city could provide free parking in the two municipal garages, Cook said.

“Then the parking that is on-street is still paid parking,” she said. “So if you have to park right there, right up front, you’re still paying, but if you park in the garage you still get free parking.”

Plus people who park in the garage could ride the free holiday shuttle around downtown, she suggested.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Free Portsmouth NH downtown holiday parking runs from Dec. 17 to 26