Parking Commission

City of Rochester Parking Commission Cocheco/Isinglass Conference Room 33 Wakefield Street, Rochester, NH Meeting Minutes Monday, January 12, 2026 Present: Ralph DiBernardo, Mandie Smith, Mike Scala, Andrew Swanberry, Jenn Marsh, Val Dunn, Seth Creighton Excused: Absent: Councilor Les Horne Call to order: Chair DiBernardo called the meeting to order at 10:03 a.m. Approval of minutes: Ms. Smith moved to approve the minutes of the 10/31/2025 meeting as presented; Ms. Dunn seconded. No discussion. The motion carried unanimously by voice vote. Public Input: none. Discussion: 1. Draft Parking Management Strategy Recommendations for City Council Director Scala presented the report he put together based on the Commission’s work over the last 10 months. The City Council Workshop meeting is Tuesday, January 20, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. There will be no vote at this meeting; this is an opportunity to share what has been accomplished and what the Parking Commission is thinking. He will start the presentation with a preamble that explains how we got to the recommendations and why it is necessary (results of 2 studies, increased housing downtown). He will create a PowerPoint and would like the Commission to present it after he has introduced it. This strategy document will be submitted with the agenda bill by this Thursday so Councilors will receive it with their packet for review before the meeting. Chair DiBernardo asked if any of the research from neighboring towns would be provided to Councilors; Director Scala said he didn’t want to inundate them with too much information, but we can certainly reference the data as needed. Chair DiBernardo asked for a copy of the comparative fine schedule for the Commission to be able to reference. Director Creighton suggested clarifying the first sentence, so it reads “The City of Rochester Parking Commission (PC) was established by ordinance as part of the overall parking strategy to provide recommendations and to manage the parking strategy.” Director Scala will also cite the ordinance. Ms. Dunn noted on page 2 that Downtown Parking Management should be letter B. 1 Director Scala then continued through the document, reviewing each section. He indicated that we may have to change the ordinance to allow overnight parking in City lots (it currently doesn’t allow overnight parking in any City lot except for 60 Wakefield St.). This led to a discussion of how overnight parking might be managed. Director Creighton said he observed when he worked in Franklin that transients would park (camp) overnight, which is difficult to manage. Ms. Smith asked if we would need to sign for overnight parking or for NO overnight parking. Deputy Chief Swanberry said that law describes what you cannot do, so signage would say NO Overnight Parking. Ms. Dunn asked for clarification on which lots this would apply to. Director Scala said he thought it would apply to all lots except during winter parking bans when some of the lots are assigned as winter parking ban lots and others could be No Overnight Parking during the ban. Deputy Chief Swanberry said they have not observed major issues with camping right now. Director Scala said we are putting a lot of daytime restrictions on so allowing overnight parking in lots is helpful. It can always be adjusted if it becomes an issue. Director Creighton said lots would have to be signed as 2-hour parking 9am-7pm, and no fee after 7 pm. Director Scala said we only have a couple of lots that would fall into that category, most have kiosks. The 2-hour lots are Columbus and City Hall lots. Deputy Director Marsh asked for clarification that employees who work overnight are exempt from this; they have employee tags according to Deputy Chief Swanberry. Ms. Dunn said we might have to consider not allowing overnight parking in the City Hall lot because if they aren’t moved early enough there won’t be spaces for employees arriving for work. Ms. Smith moved to have the City Hall lot a no overnight parking lot, Ms. Dunn seconded. Discussion: Deputy Chief Swanberry expressed concern that the lot will be filled with people who are trying to avoid paying a meter and then there won’t be enough spaces for employees. Between Police and Fire there are approximately 150 permits for emergency staff and another 50 or so non-emergency staff. Additional discussion ensued related to overnight parking in City lots and ensuring there is enough parking for City employees. After this discussion, Ms. Smith retracted her motion. Director Scala said the 30-minute spaces at City Hall will be maintained for those who have business at City Hall. Assessing needs spaces for customers particularly during tax time, and the two in the back are used frequently. He also said he is working on getting more parking for Police personal vehicles and generally working on increasing the parking supply. Deputy Chief Swanberry said ultimately it is frustrating that the City Hall campus is right in the middle of downtown. Director Scala asked about considering kiosks in the City Hall lot (City employees with a permit would not have to pay). More discussion. Chair DiBernardo moved to meter the City Hall parking lot to match the rest of the lots in the City (Mon.-Sat., 9:00 a.m. -7:00 p.m.); Ms. Smith seconded. Director Scala confirmed the current 30-minute spaces will be maintained. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote. Director Scala introduced the section on hourly rates. Ms. Dunn asked if there would be a daily maximum; Deputy Chief Swanberry said it’s implied with the 7-10 2 hour rate. Ms. Dunn asked about 15-minute spaces (no fee) for Door Dashers, etc. or a grace period before hourly rates are charged. Deputy Director Marsh said it would be hard to enforce, and Chair DiBernardo said he recalled Mr. Simons from Dover expressing that it had not been a good decision in their parking management system. Deputy Director Marsh said that during COVID, the City offered this and the businesses did not like it. Director Scala confirmed that vehicles with handicapped placards are allowed to park anywhere for up to 3 hours with no fee. Veterans can also park up to 3 hours for free as long as the Veteran assigned to the plate is the Operator of the vehicle. Ms. Dunn asked about how we will justify not accepting coins/cash in kiosks to the Council. Director Scala said the City doesn’t have the capacity to pick up and process cash/coins, and data from other communities shows that 80% of transactions are digital. We need to focus on meeting the needs of the majority and not a small minority. Ms. Smith said the City Hall lot should be updated to purple on the map to indicate kiosks. Deputy Chief Swanberry suggested ensuring references to the lot at the intersection of Congress and Charles Streets should be consistent throughout the document. Director Scala will change the text references to Charles Street to match the maps. Deputy Chief Swanberry clarified that the City ordinance related to overnight parking states that you cannot park for more than 24 hours. Director Creighton said the ordinance also provides allowances for temporary parking for drop-offs, contractors working in a building, etc. (as long as PD is aware). This information can be shared with City Council if they ask about it. 2-Hour Parking: Ms. Smith said City Hall/Crocker Ct should be removed from the bulleting list of 2-hr limit lots, since the Parking Commission’s recommendation is to have that lot metered. Deputy Chief Swanberry asked about the spaces designated on the map along Summer Street as metered. Director Scala said they could be designated as 2-hour instead of kiosk. Ms. Smith moved to have the spaces on Summer Street currently designated on Map A as metered changed to time restricted parking; Ms. Dunn seconded. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote. Permit Parking: Director Scala reviewed the fee schedule and # spaces in the lots. Permit process (issuance, tracking, payment) still needs to be determined. Staff will work with the Finance Office on this. Brief discussion. Winter Parking: Director Scala confirmed that the commission recommends shifting from a permit system to specific lots identified for winter parking bans; he anticipates we would need 3-4 lots. Deputy Director Marsh provided data from Becky regarding the # of winter permits she has issued per lot. She also said that DPW will meet in August/September to plan for winter operations and parking. She will reach out after that meeting to provide updates. 3  Fees & Violations: There was discussion around various fines, in particular, the Emergency Snow Ban ($100) fine. The asterisk and related sentence below the table will be removed. The ticket/tow decision will be up to the discretion of PD and DPW. It was clarified that the Commission recommendation is that after 5 violations in a calendar year, the subsequent violation fine is doubled. The recommendation to allow for “boots” on vehicles with a significant amount of unpaid/overdue violations needs to have clear parameters defined. Parking Ordinance/Parking Fund: this section was reviewed; Director Scala indicated that his goal for the fund is to break even, not to create a significant revenue stream. Ms. Dunn asked about the sequence of the roll-out of the strategy. Director Scala said he will add in what the next steps are in the process. The Commission will likely return to City Council 1-2 more times for discussion and then hopefully they vote at the 3rd meeting. There was some discussion around EV charging stations and how they are incorporated into the overall parking management strategy. The Commission then discussed mechanics of which Commission members will present to Council. Director Scala will update the strategy document with the changes suggested at this meeting and then create a brief PowerPoint that he will send to the Commission before the City Council meeting. Next Meeting: TBD Adjourn: There being no further business, Ms. Smith moved to adjourn the meeting; Ms. Dunn seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 11:57 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Carole Glenn Administrative Assistant II Economic Development Dept. 4