Medford panel considering need for revised parking rules

Finding a place to park in Medford is getting more and more difficult, and city officials say they are scrambling to fix the problem before businesses suffer further.

"Right now, we are getting a black eye because we don't have good parking enforcement," said Police Chief Leo Sacco, who chairs a city parking committee rethinking the city's laws.

"The problem is we don't have any dedicated officers whose sole responsibility is parking," he said.

Specialty coffee house Caffe Baccini in South Medford closed Oct. 12 after customers were driven away by the lack of reliable parking near the restaurant, said owner Laura Baccini. She also said that the business could not handle the rising cost of supplies.

"We always heard from people that they liked the coffee and they liked the food and they loved the family atmosphere, but parking was a major, major issue," said Baccini, who had run the business with her three children - Lisa, Lianna, and Domenic - since 2006. "A customer gets a ticket a couple of times, and they don't come back."

Mayor Michael McGlynn agrees that the core of the problem is a lack of consistent enforcement of parking ordinances. Without officers solely responsible for parking, those laws are rarely enforced.

In Medford Square, parkers have a time limit on each space they occupy, but there are no meters, so passing officers have no way of knowing how long a vehicle has been parked.

Unless an officer goes through the time- and labor-intensive process of marking each vehicle and checking when the time limit is up, motorists can usually park with impunity, if they can find a spot, that is.

"We are one of the last places in America that has free parking throughout the city," McGlynn said. "In some of the downtown areas, people will come and leave their cars all day, which doesn't help business."

In South Medford, parking is allowed to any motorist on the main thoroughfares, but not on the side streets, where parking is by residential permit only. That limits the number of spaces for potential business customers.

Capelos Floral Design, just a few blocks away from Caffe Baccini, has the same issue with parking, though most of its business is done over the phone rather than by walk-ins.

"If someone just wants to stop and get a bouquet, there's not really any place to park," Capelos owner Effie Mihos said. "Weekends are easier, because there is more parking available."

In 2007, the Medford Police Department wrote 20,017 parking citations, but more than half of those were to enforce the city's winter parking laws that limit cars to one side of the street. Only 86 citations were issued to motorists for exceeding the parking time limit.

More parking citations, 1,605, were issued along the city's 104 permit-only streets.

Sacco said it is much easier for an officer to write several tickets at once, because, once he or she commits to papering vehicles on a permit street, there are usually quite a few in violation.

That does not mean that those streets get any more attention, though.

"I hate to admit it, but about the only time they get a violation is if a resident out there complains," Sacco said.

Through Oct. 22 this year, the 18,166 total citations included 418 for going over the parking time limit. Another 3,101 were issued for parking on permit-only streets.

The number of parking spaces is not the problem, said Lauren DiLorenzo, director of the Medford Department of Community Development.

Medford Square, for example, has 450 spaces within a quarter-mile radius, but when motorists can park all day without fear of a ticket, it clogs availability.

"We have really good food, but the parking is killing us," said Stella Veletovac, spokeswoman for the Lighthouse Cafe in Medford Square. "The cafe has pretty good visibility, but the parking is a big problem for us."

The Medford Parking Advisory Committee, which was formed by McGlynn and chaired by Sacco, is examining the laws of neighboring communities so it can recommend changes to McGlynn when he draws up the city's budget in July.

A priority is cutting down on the number of all-day parkers who abuse the time limits, Sacco said. This situation will only get worse if the MBTA Green Line extends into Medford and more people leave their cars on the streets to use public transportation.

The committee - which has visited Everett, Somerville, and Revere and plans to go to Malden - is likely to recommend installing parking meters and creating a dedicated parking division within the Police Department, Sacco said.

What to do about the recommendations is up to the mayor, who must find funding to pay for any changes.

"You have to invest some money to get this issue under control," Sacco said.

The city also wants to build a parking garage in Medford Square to increase the number of spaces, but construction is contingent on a $1 million state grant that was awarded two years ago. Medford never received the funds, DiLorenzo said, and with the state government slashing its budget, the outlook is grim.

For South Medford, more parking spaces are much harder to create with the density of houses and businesses, said DiLorenzo. The only option is better management of the available spaces.

"Parking is the number one problem in the city . . . but I am thankful it is that and not violent crime," Sacco said.

Brad Kane can be reached at brad.j.kane@gmail.com.