Town Square Paid Parking To Begin March 10
Jan 30, 2008 8:17 - 4 Comments
Posted by: Brad Rourke
Department: Opinion
Tags: city council, government services, town square, What do you think?
Department: Opinion
Tags: city council, government services, town square, What do you think?
As >Rockville Central readers know, charging for the currently-free Town Square parking was on the agenda at the last Mayor and Council meeting. The Gazette reports that the City has decided to begin charging $1.00 per hour for parking from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm on weekdays in the Town Square garages starting on March 10. Weekends will be free, and, under an already-existing deal, Library patrons park free too.
[UPDATE: Here's the City's just-issued press release on the subject.]
Councilmember Piotr Gajewski had originally proposed a more extensive plan, which would have charged for parking until later at night but which would have also taken advantage of a deal between the City and Montgomery County for the County to pay for parking.
(I was home during this meeting, cranking to finish a report for my actual job. I tried to watch the meeting. Let me take this opportunity to complain that The Rockville Channel’s stream was down — first it was audio-only and then I got bupkis. Tried multiple computers. Nuthin’. Grr.)
Needless to say, some Town Square business owners are concerned that the parking fees will drive away business. Deborah Simon, owner of the wonderful Waygoose Fine Crafts, testified in Citizen’s Forum, according to the Gazette:
‘‘We need the time to grow our businesses. . . . We need the time to grow our customers so that we can survive here. Because we will not be able to stay if we do not have that kind of support from the city.”
Personally, parking fees won’t keep me away from shopping. In fact, to my mind it has long been obviously too good to be true that free parking would continue for much longer at such a substantial shopping center as Town Square. So, each time I pulled into the lot behind Five Guys, I got a little shiver, like I was getting a free ride. Party’s over, and probably about time.
How about you? If you are already a patron of Town Square, will parking fees keep you away?
What do you think?
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While I won’t enjoy paying for parking, I think it was the right decision. We can debate over the merits of the City paying (really borrowing money) to build the parking in the first place, but that is a done deal now. The only responsible thing to do is to start charging enough to make the payments on the debt. We are going to pay for this one way or the other, either through our property taxes or through parking fees. It only makes sense that the people who actually park there bear the burden.
Not really. Check out http://www.downbytheriverpax.blogspot.com>
He has some good insight.
I’m OK with paying for parking. Perhaps some spots in the Washington Street garage might be available during the day so I can can get to the bank more easily.
Why would I pay to park and shop at, say CVS (or other shops in downtown Rockville) when I can just drive right down the pike to the next CVS (or any one of the hundreds of other stores) and park for free?>
Virginia