The Select Board Monday night voted to increase metered parking rates by ten cents an hour and to buy new parking machines that will allow visitors to pay by credit card.
AMHERST - The Select Board Monday night voted to increase metered parking rates by 10 cents an hour and to buy new parking machines that will allow visitors to pay by credit card.
To make downtown more shopper friendly, the town proposed the parking improvement plan that will include the new parking machines.
Rates are scheduled to increase June 1.
Town Manager John P. Musante presented the town parking system improvement plan to the Select Board earlier this month. The two-week delay in voting allowed the board to review the proposal and the chance for people to come to the meeting if they had concerns. No one came to the meeting.
“We’re excited to be poised to implement more customer friendly parking machines,” Musante said Monday night.
The machines allow motorists to pay by space and not have to return to their vehicle to display a receipt. The University of Massachusetts has such a system near its visitor center.
The machines will also allow payment by credit or debit card and by cell phone as well as change.
The system will allow the town to change the rates, time limits and parking hours for special events.
The plan is to install new machines at the Boltwood Walk Parking Garage, the town portion of the CVS lot, Amity Street and Town Hall lots this spring and the Main and Spring Street lots next year.
The third phase would add the machines to the Pray Street lot and possibly street meters.
The initial phase will cost $94,000, which would include the machines and poles with space markers, among other costs. The expense is included in a capital budget funded by the transportation fund, Musante said. The cost of the new systems is about $37,000 annually because of credit card transaction fees, plus secure network fees.
Some of these costs would be offset with the increase in metered parking rates and is expected to bring in an additional $60,000. Parking rates at all lots will remain the same - 50 cents per hour.
Also, the proposal increases the reserved space lease rate at the parking garage from $650 to $750 per year. Musante sees the proposals “making downtown more attractive, easier to park in.” Also, he said, the new system reduces maintenance costs. The system “is more customer friendly.” Paying by credit card, he said, “is more convenient.”
Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tony A. Maroulis said earlier this month that the plan “is going a long way to get parking right in town.” He said the new system “improves the visitor experience” and “makes sense of parking, which has long perplexed” shopkeepers.