By Anne Levin

At a special work session Monday evening devoted to the new parking plan, Princeton Council focused on recommendations made by the Princeton Merchants Association (PMA) and discussed making some revisions to the controversial system recently put in place at downtown meters and kiosks. No formal action was taken.

Mayor Liz Lempert opened the meeting by thanking merchants for their suggestions. “We know this has not been the smoothest of rollouts,” she said. “We all care about our downtown. We want our merchants to be successful.”

Retail has suffered since the new meters and new rates were put into effect a few months ago, merchants have told the Council. The results of a PMA survey posted on its website show that the plan has had a “chillingly negative impact on the businesses in town through the holiday season and the first months of 2019,” members of the organization wrote in a letter to the editor of local news outlets.

Taking several of the PMA’s suggestions for changes into account, Lempert said the Council is considering extending the time limit in the central business zone from two to three hours. A ten-minute grace period will likely be added. Rates may be lowered slightly in the central zone, but increased in all-day parking spaces to offset that decrease, a move she called “really challenging. It’s important that we monitor usage and come back and take another review.”

Fees for using the app associated with the new system could be lower, and meters could be put back into loading zones, such as the one in front of Brooks Brothers on Palmer Square, to allow for after-hours parking. The PMA’s proposal for progressive parking rates is not feasible because of the expense of installing additional sensors, Municipal Administrator Marc Dashield said.

Dorothea Von Moltke of Labyrinth Books asked if the rate for parking at meters in the central district could be lowered from $2 an hour to $1.85. Lempert pointed out that with the extra 10 minutes in the grace period, the rate is actually lower than $2.

Some merchants said that customers, many of whom are from out of town, have complained repeatedly about the parking rates and problems operating the new meters and kiosks. “There isn’t a week that’s gone by when a visitor hasn’t stopped me and said, ‘We love your museum, but we’re never coming back because of the difficulty of parking,’” said James Steward, executive director of the Princeton University Art Museum. A tour guide for the Historical Society of Princeton reported similar interactions.

Joanne Farrugia of JaZams on Palmer Square said she invited members of the Council to come to stores and hear customers’ comments about parking. “We are not exaggerating,” she said. “We’re actually minimizing it. Come and hang out for a good hour, and you’ll hear what we’re talking about.”

Lempert said applications for a task force being formed to explore permit parking are being accepted through May 3. The applications are online at www.princetonnj.gov.

Council member Leticia Fraga said she was in favor of a suggestion to raise the parking rates in the Spring Street Garage by 25 cents. Michelle Lambros, who is a candidate for Council, disagreed. “At least if we can, let’s try and lower rates as a good will gesture to bring people back,” she said. “I hear a lot of people saying they don’t want to come back.”

Scott Sillars, who chairs the Citizens Finance Advisory Committee (CFAC), said many people are “ignorant” of the fact that parking is cheaper on streets a few blocks east of the central district. Some merchants said that customers from out of town would not have a way of knowing that information. “How to get the word out to people from out of town is a big challenge,” said Lempert.

Concerns about the phone app led Council to negotiate with PassportParking, the company that provides the app, to get the 35 cent charge per transaction down to 25 cents; 20 cents if customers use the “wallet” feature that acts like a kind of virtual smart card that can be reloaded. Smart Cards, which are being discontinued, can be used until the end of June in the Spring Street Garage.

Barbara Prince, director of development at the Princeton Senior Resource Center, said her constituents have a hard time using the app and other features of the parking system. “It is not age-friendly,” she said, urging Council to provide instruction on the technology.

Lempert said the town will push the involvement of “meter ambassadors,” who will be out on the streets helping people who have trouble using the meters. Extending the meter time limit from two to three hours in the central district can be accomplished by May at the earliest, because it requires an ordinance hearing and vote, she said.