PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

November 16, 2017

For more information, contact:

Robert Goulding, DPW Public Information Manager

802-540-0846

Kelly Devine, BBA Executive Director

802-863-1175

City & Partners Announce Parking Improvements and Changes Ahead of the Holiday Season

Enforcement hours scaled back;

Holiday Parking Promo to provide discounted parking;

Structural Repairs to extend the life of College St garage by decades; LED lighting and enhanced camera system to improve safety

Burlington, VT - In advance of a festive and busy downtown holiday season, the Burlington Department of Public Works (DPW), the Burlington Business Association (BBA) and Church Street Marketplace (CSM) are happy to announce a series of significant parking upgrades, improvements and a holiday season promotion. Many of these upgrades and improvements were made possible by the City’s new Sustainable Infrastructure Plan, the 2015 Downtown Parking and Transportation Plan and by Mayor Miro Weinberger’s and his Administration’s focus on improving the parking experience in Burlington, including lessening the time involved in finding and paying for parking, making parking as safe as possible and raising public awareness on additional parking opportunities in light of the Burlington City Place parking structure demolition.

“The City has made a coordinated effort with our business community to ensure that we accommodate displaced parkers and that downtown remains open for business. Let me repeat -- downtown is open for business,” said Chapin Spencer, Director of Public Works. “We’ll be able to offer a newly upgraded garage, a fun holiday promotion and enhanced safety at our garages. In addition, parking remains free at city-owned garages for the first two hours of parking.”

Reduction in Enforcement Hours

The city’s priority is to balance demand for parking with a fair approach to enforcement. In 2015, the City Council accepted a Downtown Parking and Transportation plan which calls for a data-driven approach to managing parking demand. Encouraging turnover of spaces is critical to support our downtown business community and allows a steady flow of commerce throughout the day. After a careful analysis of on street utilization, the data indicated a best practice would be to roll back enforcement hours in the downtown core. DPW, with BBA’s support, made these recommendations which the DPW Commission accepted. The three approved recommendations include:

• Delaying on street enforcement throughout Burlington until 9AM
• Ending on street enforcement at 9PM in the downtown core. On street enforcement already ends at 6pm outside of the core.
• Converting all 15 minute meters to 30 minute meters in the downtown core

“These changes will enhance the customer experience for people visiting Burlington and make our City a better place to live, work and play,” said Kelly Devine, Executive Director of the Burlington Business Association.

These changes will go into effect on December 1. Please be sure to read all signs and meters to ensure you understand your payment obligations. You can also visit www.parkburlington.com or www.burlingtonvt.gov/DPW for more information and updates.

Holiday Parking Promotion

To support our business partners, tourists and residents throughout the city and encourage everyone to experience the charm of Burlington during the holiday season, a joint city effort will offer discounted parking on select Saturdays during the holiday season.

Beginning November 25 and running for four consecutive Saturdays (Nov 25, Dec 2, Dec 9, Dec 16), a promotion between Church Street Marketplace, BBA and DPW will provide a $3 discount at all on street meters throughout Burlington using the ParkMobile App. Each Saturday will have a unique code and everyone with their own ParkMobile account will be allowed one session on each of the Saturdays. Visit your app store or parkmobile.com to download the “Parkmobile” app, and be sure to have all license plate info handy. Park Burlington’s website, ParkBurlington.com, offers a how-to video for using the app, as well as an interactive map of all downtown parking. If you don’t have a smartphone, simply call (877) 727-5010 to register for an account and call the same number to initiate a parking session. Dates and codes are below:

Parking Garage Upgrades and Enhanced Safety

The City’s new Sustainable Infrastructure Plan and the 2015 Downtown Parking and Transportation plan laid out a roadmap for improving the parking garage infrastructure in the city. DPW recently completed $2.5M in extensive upgrades and repairs to the College Street parking garage -- located at 60 College St (with an additional entrance on Battery St) -- which will extend its usable life for decades and provide a safer parking experience at its garages. Critical work at this garage includes structural repairs, improved drainage and new LED lighting to reduce energy usage and improve the public safety of the facility.

DPW also recently completed a public safety project which added cameras to College Street garage and Lakeview Garage (41 Cherry St) and will be adding cameras to its Marketplace Garage (47 South Winooski; entrances on Bank St and Cherry St). These new cameras will ensure each garage level has adequate security footage coverage, and the new camera system will also now provide improved visual acuity, a live feed to dispatchers with the Burlington Police Department and up to 28 days of storage capacity.

More updates and improvements to the parking system in Burlington are in the works, so stay tuned!

For a how-to video on using the ParkMobile App, see here: https://parkburlington.com/downtown-parking/how-to-guide/

For an interactive parking map of downtown Burlington, see here:

https://parkburlington.com/downtown-parking/parking-map/

@BTVDPW facebook.com/btvdpw

@Park Burlington facebook.com/parkburlington

@ChurchStreet facebook.com/churchstreetmarketplace

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