FARMINGTON — Proposed parking restrictions for the newly completed Church Street municipal parking lot will be considered Tuesday night by the Board of Selectmen.
The restrictions for the 27-space lot will be the subject of a public hearing held at the start of the 6:30 p.m. board of selectmen meeting. The public hearing will then be followed by a vote on the restrictions by selectmen.
The town’s parking committee has recommended the restrictions for the Church Street lot, which is at the corner of Church Street and Cony Street across from the Meetinghouse Cemetery. If approved, the lot restrictions will be added to the town’s traffic ordinance as amendments.
Town Manager Richard Davis said the proposed rules are “light restrictions” barring parking from the lot only to allow for snow removal. If passed, the proposed restrictions would ban parking in the lot from noon to 3 p.m. between Nov. 15 and April 15 along with banning parking from midnight to 6 a.m. between those same dates.
There would be no restrictions for the lot, including overnight parking, outside of those dates.
The $160,000 parking lot project was completed earlier this month and marked by a ceremonial ribbon cutting by town officials. The project began in 2015 when the parking committee began discussing purchasing and tearing down a building at 112 Church St. to alleviate downtown parking problems.
With limited street parking and a population of University of Maine at Farmington students who live off-campus, downtown parking has been a perennial issue, Davis said earlier this year.
Following voter approval at a special town meeting, the 1866 home was purchased by the town in November 2015. The building was demolished in July by Jordan Excavation, of Kingfield, which also constructed the parking lot. The project was funded out of the town’s downtown increment financing district.
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting the town will consider accepting $8,000 in grants for the Parks and Recreation Department and awarding a bid for a new police cruiser.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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