Paid parking returns to Haverhill as downtown drivers face fee changes, new rules

May 1—HAVERHILL — Drivers will have to pay more to use downtown parking spaces than in the past — unless they're stopping for only a few minutes.

A new twist in Haverhill's paid parking program will give drivers making brief stops a break, charging them less than they formerly paid.

The downtown's paid parking program, on hold since last April because of the pandemic, is back next week. With it comes a fee increase from the previous 50 cents to $1 per hour for a space.

Drivers don't have to pay the entire $1 fee, however, if they park their vehicle for less than an hour. They now have the option of paying just 25 cents (in coins) for every 15 minutes, or $1 per hour if they use a credit card.

"We think this will be better for people who just want to park for a short time," said Public Works Director Michael Stankovich.

Paid parking resumes Monday after it was placed on hold a year ago because of the COVID-19 crisis, which left few people visiting the downtown.

"We stopped during the pandemic because there was no need for a parking plan with no one parking," Mayor James Fiorentini said.

Downtown Haverhill has had paid parking for about a decade. During that time, the number of restaurants in the city has doubled, with most of the growth downtown, Fiorentini said. He said that shows paid parking works by discouraging drivers from leaving their vehicles on streets for long periods of time. Instead, to keep their parking cost down, they leave their cars at curbside for an hour or two, the time it takes to have a meal. Then they move on, freeing up prime spaces for other restaurant customers.

The mayor said the new parking program is easier to understand than the one which existed a year ago. The new program has the same time limits for both street spaces and lots. The old plan had varying time limits, which sometimes caused confusion for drivers.

Money raised by the plan pays for a full-time worker to clean the downtown and for new parking kiosks, which will be easier to use, Fiorentini said.

He said Haverhill charges drivers less to park than any other community in the state.

In preparation to restart the program after it was halted for a year, the mayor said all of the downtown's existing 45 kiosks have been repaired and all of them work with the new license plate program. That program allows drivers to enter their plate number into the kiosks instead of using a designated parking space numbering system or having to place a receipt on their dashboard.

The city has ordered new kiosks and expects them to arrive in about two months, Fiorentini said.

He said the new paid parking program adopted by the City Council includes some changes from the old program, such as allowing drivers to pay in 15-minute increments.

The new paid parking hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. for both on-street spaces and off-street lots, as well as the Merrimack Street parking deck. The Granite Street parking garage is not part of the program. That garage is operated by the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority, not the city.

For the first few weeks of the new program, warnings, not tickets, will be issued to drivers who fail to follow the rules, the mayor said.

On-street parking will be limited to a maximum of two hours. There will be no maximum time in parking lots, including the Merrimack Street deck, with the exception of the Eliot Place lot next to the Haverhill Heights building. That lot already has a two-hour limit because of a city ordinance.

Free two-hour parking will still be in effect at the front of the Merrimack Street parking deck and in designated spaces along Merrimack Street.

Several locations for 30-minute parking spaces will be added for short-term use by business patrons, but those locations are still to be determined, Fiorentini said. There is plenty of free parking within a short walk of the downtown, including on Bailey Boulevard, Orchard Street, Locke Street, and Washington Avenue, he said.

Drivers who want to use the pay-by-license plate program must enter their plate number into the kiosk and purchase the desired amount of parking time. Drivers will receive a receipt for the payment if they wish.

Drivers can also pay by cellphone. The city uses Passport Parking as its pay-by-phone provider. Drivers can download the Passport Parking app onto their smartphone and avoid have to go to the kiosk. Stankovich said people using the app will receive warnings when their parking time gets low, and then can extend their time without going to a kiosk.

"About 20 percent of people had been using this for about two years prior to the stoppage of paid parking," Stankovich said.

Although new signs have been installed throughout the downtown to display the new parking rules to the public, Stankovich said all of the more than 100 signs related to parking will be updated and replaced before the new kiosks are installed.

The Passport Parking app can be downloaded at www.passportparking.com which also shows a YouTube video on how the app works.