ROCKPORT — Members of the Rockport Select Board decided March 25 to move a decision on parking plans for the proposed Rockport Public Library to their next meeting on April 8. The decision followed a two-hour discussion by members of the public and project engineers of various parking options, many of which have been drafted more than a year ago; one was conceptualized in 2016 as part of a library design that failed at the polls that year.

The options involve placing perpendicular, diagonal or parallel spaces along Limerock Street or at the northern end of Memorial Park; additional spaces would be placed along Union Street and Russell Ave. All plans involve an incursion into Memorial Park and likely the movement of the World War I war memorial. 

Each seat in the Geoffrey C. Parker Metting Room at the Rockport Opera House was filled for the March 25 meeting. Prior to the period of public comment, Selectman Jeff Hamilton instructed the audience on bullet points outlining “respect during meetings” and constructive comment strategies.

The forum was moderated by board member Debra Hall, who admonished audience members throughout the night that comments pertaining to numbers of parking spaces and specific inquiries involving traffic along Limerock Street would not be addressed.  Watch the entire meeting here.

Will Gartley, of Gartleyand& Dorsky Engineers, joined the Select Board as a member of the panel, and offered information about each of the presented plans, as his firm was instrumental in crafting many of them. Throughout the evening, residents raised concerns about accessibility of parking spaces, possible traffic increases in the neighborhood, as well as the effect the parking would have on the green space in Marine Park.

The first option presented is the current parking plan for the project: 14 perpendicular parking spaces along Limerock Street opposite the library.

The next plan would be for 10 parking spaces to be placed diagonally at a 60 degree angle along Limerock and Memorial Park.

The third plan calls for five parallel spaces. 

In each iteration, additionally there would three spaces on Russell Ave. and four spaces on Union St.; a sidewalk of five feet in depth would run along the parking spaces.

In a fourth option, a parking lot would be placed at the top of Memorial Park – the furthest direct distance from the library – but would close off the end of Limerock Street to incoming and outgoing traffic and would add landscaping leading from the parking area to the building.

Board member Doug Cole asked Gartley if it would be possible to remove the sidewalk from the current, perpendicular plan, preserving that property as green space in the park.

Gartley said he was reluctant to recommend such a change in the interest of citizens’ safety in exiting their vehicles and turning directly to walk across Limerock Street to the library. Audience member Liz Dailey spoke in favor of the current, 14 space parking plan:

”I like this plan, it speaks to something I think is very important – social justice – and allows people to come to the library that live outside the village It’s like hanging out a ‘welcome’ sign and I like it,” she said.

Resident Richard Anderson, whose property abuts Memorial Park, asked how many cars on average are parked along Limerock Street during the day, and how many cars were parked by library patrons and staff when the previous facility operated from that location.

“We’re not getting into the need for parking or the number of parking spaces, we’re just focusing on a productive way forward on these plans,” said Hall.

Over the course of the discussion, some citizens referred to the site of the former Rockport Elementary School, which was reconsidered as an alternate location for the library following the loss of the previous iteration of the project at the polls, citing the expansive flat space and the parking options that would have been available.

One such resident was Beth Davis whose home abuts the north edge of Memorial Park.

“My entire south border would become asphalt, and I would lose the trees which give me shade in the summer,” said Davis of the fourth parking option. 

“How can [the Select Board] weigh neighbors in the area against all of Rockport,” said resident Jan Rosenbaum after other homeowners Limerock Street voiced concerns about traffic and changes to Memorial Park. “Many of these people fought to keep the library on Limerock.”

An hour and a half into the discussion, architect John Priestley said he had devised his own parking plan which wouldn’t involve cutting down any trees (all the other plans require trees in Memorial Park to be cut down.)

Priestley was one of six architects who vied to design the library – the contract was awarded to Steve Smith. Priestley referred to his concept as “Library in the Park,” but his draft had not been provided to all members of the Select Board prior to the meeting and was not presented in detail.

After closing the period of public comment, the Select Board discussed whether or not to move forward with one of the parking options, keeping in mind the financial and work schedule affect a potential change order from the current plan would have. Members Mark Kelley and Doug Cole said the thought it was in the best interest of the town to make a decision at the meeting. Hall and Hamilton said they wanted more time to consider the options and get additional public feedback.

Chairman Ken McKinley said his initial feeling was that the matter should be put to a town vote, but was willing to consider moving forward with the current plan, perhaps modifying it to reduce the number of parking spaces from 14 to 10. Hall said she wanted to move the decision to the board’s next meeting in April. 

“What’s going to change in the next two weeks,” asked Cole, noting that many of the plans had been on the table for over a year. Hall said that the public should weigh in on the different positions of parking spaces (perpendicular, diagonal, etc.)

The board agreed to place the item on the agenda for their April 8 meeting.

Last week the Select Board convened an emergency meeting to discuss a billing dispute between the town and the Rockport Library Foundation. The meeting was announced publicly an hour beforehand. The Rockport Library Foundation was organized last autumn as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, “to raise private, tax-deductible contributions, which in combination with voter-approved bond funds, will be used to construct a new library building in the heart of the town,” according to its mission.

The root of the March 19 issue, however, concerned a $125,000 invoice that was recently sent to the Foundation from the town. The invoice contained no documentation about what the charges represented, and which contractors were to be paid for what purposes. On March 25 McKinley said that an agreement between the two groups was “not ready for primetime,” but that the foundation had made a payment for a “large portion” of the invoice.

The town will be responsible for paying for any parking lot creation and maintenance. Earlier this month, the Rockport Select Board decided to move the parking expenditures from the town’s general 2019 budget and include the $150,000 expenditure as part of the voter-approved library project bond.

Reach Louis Bettcher at news@penbaypilot.com