2 weeks Ago
Bangor city leaders will consider permanently changing the rules for on-street parking during the winter, even though more than 500 cars got towed during the trial phase. For the first time this winter, Bangor allowed drivers to park on the street during the day and overnight, just like the rest of the year, except for when the city issued either a citywide or downtown parking ban. While the city ran into some problems, such as needing to tow hundreds of cars that didn’t obey the parking ban, the trial was largely successful, Aaron Huotari, Bangor’s public works director, said in an April 23 memo to city councilors.
“Overall, the negative feedback from residents regarding the trial was minimal,” Huotari said. “[The city’s public works department] also received feedback from residents that allowing overnight on-street parking during periods of no snowfall was helpful and appreciated.” Because of this, Huotari recommended the city officially adopt the parking system and follow it every winter moving forward.
The City Council’s Infrastructure Committee agreed on Wednesday, and the rule change will go before the council for formal approval next week. The city developed the new policy for two reasons, Huotari told the Bangor Daily News in November. First, city leaders recently changed how many off-street parking spaces a housing unit had to have as an enticement to housing developers.
While this allows more housing to be built on small pieces of land, it could mean more residents have to use on-street parking. Additionally, it hasn’t snowed as much in recent years, meaning there’s often little need to have cars off the streets, Huotari told the Bangor Daily News. The new policy was a departure from the city’s previous rules that banned roadside parking overnight starting with the first snowfall of the season that triggers a parking ban and lasting until March 31.
During the day, Bangor drivers had to park on either the odd or even sides of the streets depending on the corresponding day of the month. While drivers appreciated being allowed to park on the roads overnight when it wasn’t snowing, Huotari said, the city encountered a few issues during the trial. For example, some winter storms brought more snow than initially forecasted, which forced plows to drive around cars when a parking ban wasn’t issued.
Additionally, some residents didn’t obey parking bans, despite the city posting alerts on social media, and through local news organizations and temporary no-parking signs. This led Bangor police to tow “many” vehicles during parking bans, Hutoari said. Between Dec.
9, 2024, and Feb. 27, Bangor police towed 549 cars that didn’t obey the parking ban, according to Jason McAmbley, the Bangor Police Department’s public information officer. While the city needing to issue alerts for every parking ban was “overwhelming for some residents,” and some confused downtown and citywide parking bans, Huotari said allowing overnight on-street parking during the winter was generally “a benefit to residents.
” Citywide parking bans required all residents to find off-street parking, and various parking lots around Bangor were opened to drivers. When a Downtown Parking District parking ban was announced, only vehicles in that district were required to find off-street parking. More articles from the BDN.
