GREENFIELD — Parking supply in the city significantly outweighs demand, with roughly half of the nearly 3,000 spots in the downtown area being empty at all times, the results of a grant-funded parking study discovered.

Jason Schrieber, senior principal at the consulting firm Stantec, shared the results of the parking study during a well-received presentation at the John Zon Community Center on Monday. The study, which was completed on a Thursday and Saturday in late April and was funded by a $25,000 Massachusetts Downtown Initiative grant, comes as the city continues work on revitalizing its downtown.

In addition to collecting information from the city, such as parking meter activity, and gathering community feedback, Stantec conducted a parking study that involved counting vehicles for an established time frame. Based on the results of the study, Schrieber suggested implementing tiered pricing, eliminating timed parking and improving parking signs among his key recommendations.

“I’m very excited about this,” said Mayor Roxann Wedegartner. “The data is great. Parking is one of the things we get many, many complaints about.”

In Greenfield, there are 3,156 parking spots, 20% of which are on-street and 80% are off-street, according to the study. The majority of on-street spaces are paid, and two-hour spaces are concentrated near retail and dining locations.

“You could wipe out 60% of the Main Street supply and virtually have zero impact in your downtown,” Schrieber said. “The parking is there, the spaces are there, the availability is there.”

In general, Schrieber said, there is “plenty of availability in the overall system at all times.” That said, it’s not being used appropriately, with Schrieber citing the data regarding vacant spaces.

“Nobody should be building another parking space in your downtown,” Schrieber said. “They should be putting buildings on the parking lots to create vitality to your downtown that might produce enough demand to fill the rest of the parking. That would be a dream. You’re not there, but that could be something you keep your eye on.”

Some recommendations he shared Monday night included drafting clear zoning guidelines, establishing a shared district (between public and private) and sharing parking facilities, identifying employee needs, potentially expanding the permit program, increasing permit costs while providing more payment options (monthly, for example), increasing ticket fines but also eliminating time limits so as to encourage customers to buy as much time as needed, and converting underused parking space into safety improvements and public spaces.

Schrieber emphasized in particular that parking fees should match demand. For instance, the Olive Street parking garage, which was never more than half full at any point during the study, should be cheaper than its current rate of $1 per hour from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Parking on Main Street, meanwhile, which is 50 cents per hour, could be increased to match the convenience of it.

“Raise the price where there’s more demand, lower the price where there’s not enough demand,” Schrieber suggested, “and that means making some places that are priced now, free.”

Schrieber also emphasized the need to eliminate parking time limits.

“Can you imagine writing a ticket for someone who’s coming from out of town to help downtown?” he said. “I would stay there and feed my Passport app all day long if I could stay downtown in a good parking space.”

Next downtown revitalization meeting

The next meeting relevant to the revitalization of downtown will take place Thursday, June 22, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the John Zon Community Center. This meeting, to be led by designers for the Main Street rehabilitation project, will offer community members the chance to provide input on the preliminary design concept alternatives that have been prepared since the first workshop was held in February.

The Main Street redesign project aims to implement a complete street rehabilitation, including safety infrastructure upgrades to pedestrian, bicycle and transit accommodations, according to a city press release. Some of the specific redesign goals include creating a safer intersection at Main and High streets, promoting safety at state-identified pedestrian and bicycle crash clusters, and ensuring accessible access to all sidewalks and ramps.

Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.

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