To continue downtown Westbrook’s success, the community must plan for future parking needs. In particular, it is critical to ensure that an adequate supply of spaces is provided to accommodate future business and residential growth. For this reason, Mayor Bruce Chuluda formed the Downtown Parking Study Committee. Parking has been a major concern of the mayor’s as the community continues to develop the downtown into a center that provides ample opportunities for Westbrook residents to enjoy the city’s amenities.

The committee’s task is to study the current parking situation, assess future needs, and develop a management plan. Committee members will try to determine how many spaces the city needs, where they should be located, whether the city will need surface lots or another garage, and perhaps most importantly, who should pay for them. To answer these questions using the best possible data and expertise, the City Council voted on Sept. 26 to approve the committee’s recommendation to hire Tom Gorrill of Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers Inc. of Gray to lead the study.

Tom brings years of transportation planning and engineering expertise to downtown Westbrook. His firm has completed parking studies and management plans for downtown Auburn, the University of Maine at Orono, the University of Southern Maine, Maine Medical Center, the town of Wolfeboro, N.H., and the Ocean Gateway facility in Portland. The Committee selected Tom after a lengthy interview process based on his expertise, understanding of the issues and ability to help Westbrook develop a parking plan that will help continue the revitalization of downtown.

The study is expected to take six months to complete. In that time, there will be several public meetings to which all downtown property and business owners will be mailed an invitation. The first meeting will most likely be held in early November, with follow-up meetings in January or February. The goal of the meetings will be to develop the parking study through the marriage of input by those that use downtown and the data gathered by the Committee. Following the completion of the plan, the public will also have opportunities to comment via the Planning Board and City Council review process.

The Committee’s first meeting will be held at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20, in the Westbrook Public Safety Building located at 570 Main St. Future meetings will be held at 7:30 a.m. on the second Thursday of each month, in the same location. Information will also be available via the Downtown Parking Study Web page. The Web page will contain meeting information, data, analysis, draft reports and study chapters. The Web site can be found by going to the Department of Planning, Engineering and Code Enforcement located at www.westbrookmaine.com. In addition, please feel free to contact the Department of Planning, Engineering and Code Enforcement throughout the study process at 854-0638.

To date, Mayor Chuluda has received much comment and interest from many of the community’s downtown businesses. The mayor and committee greatly appreciate the input and look forward to continued and even greater participation as the study moves forward.

Brooks More is the Westbrook city planner.