BRATTLEBORO-Six months after the Selectboard put the brakes on free Sunday parking, plans are in motion to bring it back and to make other changes within the new parking system, which could result in "a better process for tourists, residents, and people coming downtown to shop," according to Highway and Maintenance Superintendent Darren Pacheco.
The board met May 6 with Pacheco and Assistant Police Chief Jeremy Evans, whose department is now overseeing the parking system, to hear how things have been going.
Pacheco explained several proposed reconsiderations, which Town Manager John Potter called "a quite interesting set of recommendations" before Pacheco spoke to the board.
"I think this will be a great step forward […] for relieving some of the concerns we've heard from the community about the parking system," said Potter.
The town adopted changes in June 2024, and most were enacted that November.
The town removed nearly 150 parking meters, installed new parking kiosks, and switched to pay-by-plate.
The system cost approximately $143,000, with 80% paid by a grant from the Vermont Downtown Program, and includes seven zones with 26 kiosks. Customers pay at the kiosks and through smartphone apps and texts.
Pacheco noted new system feedback included finding kiosks and learning to use them, lack of signage, difficulty finding zones and accessibility and, notably, the change from free to paid Sunday parking.
Evans said the significant changes to meters and fees have engendered "quite a bit of feedback."
Parking pays
Part of the reason for the parking system overhaul in the first place, when presented by former Assistant Town Manager Patrick Moreland, was that parking was not paying for itself as intended.
That appears to be changing.
Pacheco explained that transactions dropped in November, when the change was effected, but started to rise in April.
He clarified that when customers had to return to their vehicles to feed coins into meters, that action skewed statistics to appear as if more transactions were being made than actually were.
Total revenue was up for January to April 2025, likely due to the rate increase and additional paid parking day.
March showed the highest revenue at $40,409 for paid parking, not including permitted parking or any parking violation tickets.
Pacheco said data will continue to be monitored but that the system is generating about $1,000 per day.
Changes coming
Pacheco said the DPW already plans to add signage about finding and operating kiosks.
He made five additional recommendations to the board, all of which were accepted unanimously.
Those changes include reconfiguring zones, which includes making High Street parking the same rate as the High-Grove Lot at 55 cents per hour. The two sites would also share a 10-hour limit.
The change would also include having parking lots and corresponding streets they are attached to become one zone each and changing time limitations on Elliot and Flat streets.
Pacheco also recommended changing zone names to numerical names only, with numbers unique to Brattleboro. To that end, he said using the town's ZIP codes, 05301 to 05307, might be the way to help solve the issue of finding the zone where one has parked when using texting to pay.
Finally, the plan is to add two kiosks. Pacheco said they cost about $7,000 each and that money for them is factored into the capital budget.
"It seems like a lot," he said.
"It seems like it'd be a headache, but, as Patrick Moreland said, it's like ripping the Band-aid off [to resolve some issues]. I am in favor, generally, of all these things being done at once and having fewer sets of changes," said Chair Elizabeth McLoughlin.
Sunday, Sunday
Pacheco offered several more suggestions, each requiring a separate vote by the board and hearings prior to ordinance changes.
Board member Peter "Fish" Case, owner of Burrows Sports, said the biggest complaint he hears from customers is about paying to park on Sundays.
Pacheco and Evans also worked with the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance and now advocate bringing back free Sunday parking.
The board gave Potter the nod to explore that change and the several other recommendations, and he will return with more information.
The recommendation to remove Sunday as a paid parking day came with the addition of two hours to Monday through Saturday parking, making paid parking on those days end at 8 p.m. rather than at 6 p.m.
Sunday had been added to generate revenue so that the parking budget would not be in deficit any longer and so parking enforcement could operate as a self-sufficient system.
Paid parking on Sundays is currently generating $5,500 per month in revenue, Pacheco said.
Other recommendations will consider at its next meeting:
• implementing a violation appeals process and developing a form
• creating an easier permit purchasing process (online, perhaps; and/or adding a monthly permit option to the current quarterly and annually options)
• defining loading zones
Pacheco said implementing the approved changes will take a minute to enact fully as some things need to be ordered, but he hopes they can be made in a day, and the public will be apprised of that date when it's known.
A return to free Sunday parking and the other recommendations the board will discuss next likely cannot happen until mid-July or later during to scheduling needed hearings in the process to amend an ordinance.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.