Board of Selectmen - Jul 16th, 2018

I attended tonight's meeting for one agenda item: Correspondence Received. The Selectmen's agenda contained two letters:

• Request for a Residential Overnight Parking System. The author states that a number of landlords have misled prospective tenants about the availability of rental parking. Some tenants have to park far away from where they live. Other landlords are charging parking fees (where they previously weren't), or are increasing the add-on cost of renting a parking space.
• Request Change to Arlington's Overnight Parking Ban. The author cites negative effects of the parking ban, and believes it has a disproportionate effect on renters. He asks the select board to consider a gradual phasing out of the overnight parking ban.

Mr. Dunn said he'd spoken to one of the authors, and was willing to follow up. His main concerns were the costs of implementing an overnight parking program vs. the amount of fees such a program would generate (i.e., would the program pay for itself).

I raised my hand to speak, but board felt it would be highly unusual to take public comments on correspondence received.

I sent my remarks to Mr. Dunn via email. The basic gist: the amount of land dedicated to a driveway and parking for two vehicles is around 624 square feet (figuring 300 square feet for a driveway, and 9'x18' per vehicle). Residential land in Arlington costs in the neighborhood of $60-$92 per square foot. As a result, the cost of parking for a single-family home is in the neighborhood of $37--$57k. That's a lot of money.