Swampscott board rejects parking plan

SWAMPSCOTT – Selectmen unanimously rejected a committee’s recommendation to add parking spaces by Phillips Beach and rescinded a February 2010 vote to install a parking kiosk at the train station.”Let’s delay (a vote on parking at Phillips Beach) and come up with something more comprehensive,” said Selectman Barry Greenfield Tuesday. He said he favored “a more encompassing plan rather than piece-mail decisions.”The Traffic Study Committee recommended adding 19 additional spaces for residents along both sides of Shepard Avenue.Selectmen approved seven additional spaces along the ocean side of Shepard Avenue at their June 7 meeting – two fewer than recommended by the committee – but town officials have reported complaints from residents about the lack of parking at the town’s popular beach.”Parking at Phillips is woefully inadequate,” Selectmen Chair Matthew Strauss said. “I would agree with this plan, but I don’t think it’s enough.”But Selectman Jill Sullivan said she didn’t know if there was a problem beyond certain summer holiday weekends.Residents Sheryl and Paul Levenson also said that additional parking would make the area unsafe and suggested that the town encourage citizens to use Preston Beach.”I’m very much in favor of access to the beach,” said Paul Levenson. “But in that part of town ? you’re creating a potentially dangerous situation.”Selectman David Van Dam suggested that the Traffic Study Committee review the issue with neighbors as well as the Beach Club, which own a parking lot across the street from the beach entrance where a limited number of members of the local neighborhood association can park for an annual fee.Greenfield eventually proposed that the Traffic Study Committee meet with neighbors and the Beach Club and present a proposal before the end of the year.The board also voted unanimously to rescind a February 2010 vote to install a parking kiosk at the town-owned lot on Columbia Street by the commuter rail station.”With all that has evolved, I would change my vote,” said Strauss. “Times have changed, economics have changed.”Selectmen originally approved installing a self-service kiosk system that would charge $3 – which is $1 less than the cost to park in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) lot – to park in one of the 29 spaces on Columbia Street and Beach Avenue, Town Accountant and Parking Clerk Dave Castellarin told selectmen.A request-for-proposal to install the system was ready to go, but selectmen at the time asked that it be delayed as commuters raised objections to the proposal, Castellarin said.He asked the board Tuesday to either rescind or uphold the earlier vote.Selectmen raised a number of issues with the proposed kiosk, the most notable of which was that it could cost a resident commuter an additional $650 annually to commute from Swampscott, according to estimates by Selectman Richard Malagrifa.Sullivan also raised concerns that the system would simply exacerbate competition for parking spaces among residents and commuters in surrounding neighborhoods, saying “people will park anywhere for free.”