“Oh, someone just got hit by a bus,” Cathy Hicks once heard a customer scream, as she served food at Gorham House of Pizza at the corner of State and South streets in the heart of downtown.
Such is life in Gorham Village, where parking and pedestrian safety could be the most precious commodities these days.
Gorham is hoping to develop a plan to alleviate a shortage of downtown parking, which would add convenience and enhance village safety. The shortage of downtown parking has concerned the town for sometime. Town Council Chairman Mike Phinney said recently that he and Town Manager David Cole have “pulled out” a Main Street master plan to see where land might be available for more parking.
Three major routes, 25, 202 and 114, cut through Gorham Village and nearly 40,000 cars a day congest the downtown square. With construction still a few years away, the Gorham bypass will divert a large volume of rush hour traffic around Gorham Village. Heavy traffic combined with scant parking causes many downtown customers to walk across the busy intersection.
Customers and businesses say parking on the northerly side of the village is in short supply and to get to shops there by walking across the intersection can be dangerous. Additional parking on that side of the village would reduce the number of pedestrians crossing the busy intersection after parking along South Street.
Now, parking in downtown is fragmented. Some businesses near the intersection have their own small parking lots, while others have no parking, leaving customers to find limited on street spots.
Turning lanes added in recent years to aid traffic flow in the village wiped out several on street parking spots. Some retail customers and employees of businesses on the northerly side of the village intersection are relegated to parking on the opposite side of the village.
The employees of Sherrie Fontaine, who owns Accounts Receivable Management of Maine, find parking on South Street near the Robie Gym or along the street next to the cemetery stonewall. But they dislike the walk through the village square.
“It’s a dangerous intersection,” Fontaine said.
Edward Myslik of Sebago Lake, a loan officer at Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corporation, recalled an intersection incident last summer. “I saw a truck take out a walk sign,” Myslik said.
He parks quite a distance from the intersection and walks to his office, which looks out into the village square. Myslik said a public parking lot close to the square would be helpful.
Jessica Robinson of School Street said the parking shortage hurts downtown businesses, as potential customers can’t find parking. “It’s not convenient to frequent downtown businesses,” Robinson said. “We need a downtown parking lot.”
Vicky Lloyd of the Centre of Movement School of Performing Arts on State Street said parking could improve but thought people were on the “indulgent side” when it comes to parking expectations. “The biggest problem is people think they should park in front of the building,” Lloyd said.
Abi Pooler of Buxton said, as a customer, that she would like to park and walk around without worrying about tow away zones.
Lloyd owns a parking lot for her business but, although she doesn’t complain, she finds that “everyone else” uses it. Often customers, tired of hunting for parking, drive into lots other than businesses where they’re shopping or dining.
Then, they fear their car being hauled away. “Are they going to tow me,” Leon Rideout of the tattoo parlor on Main Street said some customers ask.
And winter weather compounds the shortage problem, as snow banks eliminate some spaces. “For two or three days after a big storm, it’s useless out here,” said Rideout.
Aaron Jalbert, also of the tattoo parlor, said their customers have to compete for parking in front of their business on Main Street.
Krista Young of Gorham takes her 3-year-old daughter, Quinn, to dance lessons at the Dance Studio of Maine in the Masonic Block on the corner of State and School streets. Young plans to arrive in the village early to find parking.
“Please be a spot. Please be a spot,” she said.
Trish Moulton, who owns the studio with her husband, Shonn Moulton, said parents have to find on-street parking and many have to cross the intersection with kids. She said a public lot would help.
“It would definitely be beneficial,” said Moulton, who is also vice president of Gorham Civic and Business Exchange.
Marianne Cianciolo of the Bookworm on Main Street said the shop does have its own parking in the rear. But she said on-street parking spots were stripped away when a turn lane was put in a few years ago. “It hurt for awhile until people got used to parking out back,” Cianciolo said.
Much of the downtown foot traffic is students at the University of Southern Maine. Dorm residents would likely walk downtown to Gorham House of Pizza or Sierra’s Mexican Restaurant and Deli on School Street, according to Denise Nelson, director of residential life at the university.
Nelson said university students don’t vie for parking on village streets. There are now 1,400 students living on the Gorham campus. Nelson said all USM students pay for a campus parking pass, and there is ample parking on campus. There is no incentive for students to park on Gorham streets, she said, except those who stop for shopping or eating.
The past council chairman, Burleigh Loveitt, had eyed Cross Street as a possible site to develop village public parking. One idea was that the town might consider buying a house for sale on Cross Street, as a potential site for a parking lot.
Earlier this fall, Loveitt recommended shelving plans to develop parking on Cross Street. He withdrew his idea out of fairness to present village merchants after the Planning Board received a proposal in October from a group with plans to develop the Methodist Church on School Street into commercial and retail ventures. The rear of the church building abuts Cross Street property. The proposal to convert the church would require approval from the Planning Board, and parking would likely be a concern.
The church, which is relocating to the corner of Route 25 and Cressey Road, is under contract after several years on the market. Built in 1880, the church lacks off street parking, which apparently had been a stumbling block to its sale in the past. Parking problems for the congregation with many elderly prompted the church to sell.
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