Small town leaders and merchants, often with an eye toward some neighboring community’s parking garage, often lament their own lack of “ample downtown parking.” Greenfield finally begins construction this spring on a garage that has been imagined for at least four decades.
And now in Shelburne Falls, Shelburne Selectman Joseph Judd has proposed turning an underused gravel parking lot behind the old Mole Hollow Candle Co. building into a two-story parking garage with a walkway leading to the commercial heart of the village.
This comes at a time when town officials have been considering whether the village has enough parking to accommodate tourists, shoppers, new apartment tenants and new stores.
This year, the always smoldering parking issue surfaced again in this picturesque and popular, but compact village. The discussion started after the town began more rigorously enforcing its two-hour parking limits along Bridge Street and Deerfield Avenue. Also, new landlords with plans to refurbish old buildings and building sites on Bridge Street have been concerned about the number of parking spaces they would have to provide under the town’s zoning.
The bylaws require parking for customers of ground-floor stores but also more parking for tenants envisioned for upper-floor apartments. Parking requirements have constrained some of the developments because there just isn’t enough parking space within comfortable walking distance.
Shelburne could fix that problem by relaxing the zoning regulations, but that still wouldn’t provide parking space for the prospective new shoppers and tenants.
Currently, the town-owned parking lot off Deerfield Avenue, not far from the Glacial Potholes, is underutilized, used as an overnight parking lot while the winter parking ban is in effect. Although it’s available for parking year-round, few people park there because it feels disconnected to the shops and attractions of the village, plus it requires an uphill walk along an unpaved driveway.
Last year, Judd also revived the idea of building a Glacial Potholes observation deck overlooking the Deerfield River geological formation, as a way to revitalize what was once a significant tourist attraction. Judd’s parking garage can meet that need as well, from a “skywalk” on the upper-level of the parking garage. And a walkway to Bridge Street would feed right into the village’s downtown without detracting from its 20th century mercantile charm.
Selectmen have applied for a $15,000 state grant to plan for parking that would foster growth of both village businesses and apartments.
How to preserve the character of this walkable village with its cluster of historic brick buildings, while still providing convenient parking, has been debated for decades. Judd seems to have struck on the answer, and we support Shelburne’s effort, for both a grant and a garage, and we encourage our state legislators to help the town get the grant and to build such a structure if a study supports Judd’s concept. Such a garage would accommodate growth at a reasonable scale without compromising what’s special about the village.