Sept. 22, 2003 – Two-hour parking in certain sections of Christiansted is a 10-year-old idea whose time has come, the president of a downtown business group said on Monday.
"It's something we've been trying to accomplish for the last 10 years," Julia Renfrew, president of the Christiansted Restaurant and Retail Association, said. "We got it passed in the Schneider administration, but by the time the signs were made, Schneider was out of office."
The signs have been in storage at the Public Works Department ever since, she said.
Renfrew credits Lt. Gov. Vargrave Richards with being the catalyst for getting the project back on track. The merchants and restaurateurs raised the issue of short-term parking at a meeting with the lieutenant governor, and he "became the liaison with Public Works and the Police commissioner to make it happen," she said.
A release from Richards' office last week described the effort as "a public-private partnership" cemented by an agreement signed by Richards, Renfro, Police Commissioner Elton Lewis and Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood.
The change to maximum two-hour parking during business hours — from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. — affects a total of 35 parking spaces spread out over four blocks. They're on Company Street westbound between Church and Queen Cross Streets, and on Queen Cross Street northbound from Company Street to the waterfront, Renfrew said. "Most of the signs are up now," she said. "They have one more block to put them up."
Police are going to start issuing warning tickets to violators this week, she said, and they'll give out real citations, which carry a $25 fine, starting Oct. 1.
Renfrew says the short-term parking concept is about "making Christiansted a lot more customer friendly."
"We're only talking about 35 spaces," she said, "but if you turn those spaces four times each day, you've got 140 customers." She said she has "had calls from people on island who are thrilled that they can come downtown and find parking to do their shopping."
Richards said in his release that consumers concerned about parking downtown "will now be able to park quickly, go shopping within an hour or two and leave." This, he added, will "help the owners increase the number of people coming into their businesses. It's a two-way street. It's win-win situation."
Frank Fox, St. Croix Chamber of Commerce president, does envision some potential losers, though. "From what I can see," he said on Monday, "it will benefit the retail trade, but some of the people working downtown will be losing parking spaces where they are used to parking all day."
But Fox conceded that he's just speculating. "I haven't heard anybody lobbying for or against it," he said of the new short-term limit. "I think it's too new for people to have either recognized a benefit or to have complained about it," he said.
According to Renfrew, nobody habitually parking in town all day will be displaced more than a short couple of blocks. She's referring to two parking areas — the government pay lot at Strand Street and King Cross Street, and the free 50-space Watergut lot across from the Seaborne Airlines facility. And on Saturdays and holidays, she noted, the government lot is free, too.
The two-hour limit will be in effect seven days a week, she said, "although most shops are not open on Sundays, since we don't have cruise ships coming in any more."
Renfrew said the business group would like to see the proceeds from the pay parking lot go for security at both lots. "It all goes into the General Fund now," she said. The parking fees could cover the cost of security guard services from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Watergut space and from 6 p.m. to midnight at the government lot, she said.
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