CHANGE MY LOCATION
Traffic changes to ease Havre de Grace parking woes
SEE HOW THIS STORY DEVELOPED
Related Topics: Havre de Grace, Md.
Havre de Grace, Md. (Map, News) - A battle over parking that pitted Havre de Grace against Harford County appears nearly over.
Havre de Grace Mayor Wayne Dougherty says officials are looking into ways to reconfigure traffic flow and street-side parking to restore spaces lost to a construction project consuming most of the city’s main downtown parking, at the St. John Street lot.
“Between all our proposals, we’ve come up with as many parking spaces in a two-block area as we’d lose in the construction,” Dougherty said.
Two blocks of St. John Street between Warren Street and Green Street may be made one-way from south to north, clearing the way for diagonal parking on one side of the street and parallel parking on the other, Dougherty said.
The county will be taking over most of the St. John Street parking lot for a city-county project to expand a water-treatment plant.
After a brief clash in court over the county’s closure of all but the edges of the lot, the city and the county reached a settlement last week. The two governments would split the cost of keeping part of the lot open so drivers could pass through.
Dougherty said the city had gotten permission from the Maryland Department of the Environment to add more parking on the grass between the existing lot and the shore of the Susquehanna River, though that would require adding barriers along the waterfront to prevent accidents.
“We’d need to put some bumpers in,” he said. “No one’s rolled into the river yet, but I wouldn’t want to move the parking 12 feet closer and start to see it happen.
Two lots along Freedom Street may be leased and converted to additional parking as well.
“We’re pleased to see the effort being put forth by the Mayor and city,” said Bill Watson, president of Havre de Grace Main Street Inc. “We realize we’re not going to have every parking place that we used to have due to the construction.”
msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
9:20 PM MST on Thu., Aug. 21, 2008 re: "Traffic changes to ease Havre de Grace parking woes"
Report as inappropriate
7:41 AM MST on Mon., Apr. 14, 2008
re: "Traffic changes to ease Havre de Grace parking woes"
Report as inappropriate
Examiner Reader said:
Mayor: There is a place reserved for you. Watch your back.
2 agree | 1 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
RichieC said:
This is the exact suggestion I gave this mayor when we were standing in my driveway as we are neighbors. Along with the lot rentals. Dont take my word...check the Dagger Press articals on this matter. Its right there in black and white. While there check "Life and death In Hdg City yach basin" and "Marina Mafia" .
2 agree | 3 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree