By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton will look to raise the price of parking at the municipal garage on Spring Street and also eliminate the two hours of free parking there for users of the public library.
Council President Bernard P. Miller said Monday that the library wants to be relieved of the responsibility of validating parking receipts. As long as someone had a library card, he or she could park free in the garage for up to two hours, although officials said that gratuity is abused by some who don’t actually use the library during that time.
“Let’s be honest, some people just go to the library just to get validated anyway,” town administrator Marc D. Dashield said. “That’s one of the things we looked at.”
The library has installed self-validating stations.
The town will continue to provide short-term free parking in the garage. At the moment, anyone can get 30 minutes at no charge. Officials said they plan to increase that by an additional 30 minutes for a total of one hour.
New, higher parking rates have not been determined. “So we haven’t come to that conclusion yet,” said Mr. Dashield, who added the increase was needed to help the town recover the rising cost of operating parking in town.
The Princeton Council will have to approve the changes. There has not been a rate increase in the garage in several years, the town said.
The changes come as the town looks to install, over three to four days in September, about $300,000 worth of new equipment to help the garage run smoother. That includes new gates, pay stations and computer equipment, said Robert Hough, director of infrastructure and operations.
“It’s a complete gutting of the system,” he said.
Mr. Miller said the new equipment allows for “greater flexibility than what we have now.”
“We can adjust the parking rates much easier than we have been able to adjust them in the past,” he said.
The town also will look to raise on-street meter fees as well.
