Thursday, July 15, 1999 Older Editions

Police want to get rid of all two-hour spaces on Main Street Downtown parking could get easier in high turnover areas

By Neil Fater

Looking for a quick place to park on Main Street as you run in for your morning coffee, paper or bagel? Well, things may get a little easier.

But if you're hoping for a more extended downtown shopping spree, you soon may need to park further away from Main.

Tight fit -- Main Street parking spaces are often hard to come by. Allowing shorter times could change this.

After years of idle chatter about how to improve parking downtown, police are hoping selectmen will get into gear Monday and approve their recommended changes to Main Street's parking regulations.

Police want to eliminate two-hour spaces on Main Street.

"The proposal basically is to open up Main Street to allow easier customer parking," says safety officer Robert Cronin. "The proposal is to change all the two-hour spots on Main Street to one-hour spaces. Then, in high-turnover areas, such as in front of the Dunkin' Donuts and the video store (Andover Video), to strategically place 15-minute parking spaces."

Police also want to provide 15-minute parking spaces near Andover Bank's automatic teller machine and across from CVS convenience store and pharmacy, he says.

Although police aggressively ticket the downtown area, meter man Dave Cantone has said this does not stop some people from parking in two-hour spots for several extra hours. But parkers tend to take one-hour parking restrictions more seriously, and are far less likely to park in those spots for half a day, says Cronin.

"We feel the average motorist is going to look at a one-hour sign and use it for shorter periods. There's a psychological difference," says Cronin. "They'll look at (the space) as an area for a quick trip and won't think of using it for the better part of a morning."

Although police plan to keep the new regulations, assuming selectmen approve them, Cronin says, "If it turns into an utter failure we can always revisit it."

The police proposal is the latest in a long line of suggestions regarding how to ease the parking crunch downtown. Residents and officials have repeatedly discussed everything from expanding the employees-only parking area in the Olde Andover Village lot to building a large parking garage.

Residents had a chance at 1998 Town Meeting to approve $40,000 to study a site and design for a Main Street parking garage, but the proposal by Norman Viehmann failed in a hand vote.

Viehmann also proposed buying land and spending up to $4.2 million to build a downtown parking garage, but both of those articles were withdrawn at Town Meeting before a vote was taken.

Police say there is plenty of parking within a short walk to Main Street.

"There are vast amounts of all-day parking scattered around the outskirts of the central business district. If you go to a mall you'll park 200 yards away, but you don't want to do it here," says Cronin.