Downtown parking plan upsets Lynn residents

LYNN – Not all residents in two downtown buildings are happy with a city plan to encourage them to stop parking in the Buffum Street city lot and start parking in a lot off Ellis Street.Off Street Parking Commissioners voted Tuesday to charge Rolfe House and Fabens building residents living near Central Square $20 a month to park in the Ellis Street lot located off Silsbee Street.City Assistant Parking Director Robert Stilian said the vote affects 18 residents in the two buildings who own vehicles. According to commissioners, management firms supervising both buildings notified tenants they are discontinuing a practice of paying for residents to park in city lots.The commission charges $45 a month for drivers to park in the Buffum lot but, beginning Aug. 1, the Ellis Street lot will cost $20 a month – a two dollar increase over the current monthly fee. Stilian said the commission vote is intended to ease congestion in the Buffum Street lot by encouraging downtown residents to park on Ellis Street.The 200-space Buffum Street lot is a central parking site for employees in downtown businesses. Stilian said there are about 250 spaces in the Ellis Street lot bordering School Street.”Buffum Street is over-utilized,” Stilian said.Rolfe House management stopped paying for residents’ parking on June 1, according to a written notice resident Phaly Prak received. Prak prefers to park in the Buffum Street lot around the corner from her residence. The Ellis lot is almost three blocks away from Rolfe House.”I don’t know if it is safe or not,” she said.Fabens resident Henry Reynoso does not want to pay to park in the Buffum or the Ellis lot, but he said his car was vandalized and thieves stole his car radio when he parked on a downtown street.”It’s expensive, but I don’t want to park on the street,” he said.The commission is focusing on who parks in downtown lots as well as improvements needed in the lots.”We’re making a big financial commitment to our lots,” Commission Chairman Taso Nikolakopoulos said.Created by the state Legislature as a semi-independent city agency, the commission has spent about half of the $270,000 under its control on lot improvement projects, including fare collection machines and $61,000 in paving work approved during Tuesday’s meeting.The commission voted to spend $2,800 on fence repairs in the Johnson Street lot and summer youth workers are cleaning lots during the next two months.