I’ve spoken with multiple people who said some version of the following: “I’d probably spend more time downtown if there was somewhere to park.”
But here’s the thing. There is plenty of off street parking downtown. But if you don’t spend a lot of time there, you may not even know where it is.
Another common question people ask is, “How can we help make downtown better?” That’s a complex question and there are a variety of policy solutions we can implement to help support businesses downtown and attract customers to come to them.
But one small, simple step we can take is to combat the perception that there is no parking and make it easier for people to find where to park. It’ s a bit of a chicken or egg situation, but if you remove the impediments to people visiting downtown you create better conditions for businesses to succeed.
So let’s run down where the major parking lots are, talk about how to improve things, and think about how this fits into larger conversations about the future of our town.
The Municipal Lots in Downtown West Orange
West Orange owns a number of parking lots throughout town, but for our purposes we’ll focus on the ones along Main Street and Valley Road.
George Quigley Lot
The first parking is the George Quigley Parking Lot at the end of Main Street. It’s tucked away behind Our Lady of Lourdes, in between Harrison Ave and the Mississippi Loop. There are 75 parking spots in the lot, including 17 that are designated for permit parking.
There is a sign identifying the parking lot at the corner of Harrison Ave and Mississippi Ave. But it’s not visible from any of the major approaches. If you’re coming north up Main Street, it’s obscured by the building on the corner. If you’re coming down Eagle Rock Ave, it’s obscured by the trees along Mississippi Ave.
But this is a convenient parking lot for a number of restaurants downtown: Llewellyn Parq, Castle Rock, and the New West Orange Diner just to name a few.
Abe Lando Lot
The next parking lot is the Abe Lando Lot at the corner of Main Street and Washington Street. It sits behind the businesses, so it’s not visible from the street. There are 85 parking spots in the lot, including 11 reserved for police and fire and 14 set aside for permit parking.
At the Main Street entrance, there is a small sign that reads “Shopper Parking.” It’s on a post with other street signs, and it is easy to miss. There’s a second sign on Washington Street at the other entrance next to the fire station. However, this sign is only visible when you’re heading southeast. The lot has two additional exits – one onto Main Street and one onto Kling Street. Neither of these is marked in such a way that there’s any indication that it’s a municipal lot.
This is a convenient parking lot for a number of businesses along Main Street, including Secreto’s, Cafecito, the barber shop, and the yoga studio that’s opening up where Lightbulb Coffee was.
Gorden Hansen Lot
Continuing along Main Street, the next parking lot we come to is the Gorden Hansen Lot. This is set back off Main Street in between Lindsley Ave and Northfield Ave. The lot contains 79 total spots, although part of the lot belongs to the bank and part belongs to the businesses along Northfield. The central section with 48 spots is owned by the township and open to the public.
There is a sign inside the parking lot with the name, and there is a generic “Parking” sign on Lindsley Avenue. But it’s right next to a sign for the bank parking. The Northfield entrance isn’t marked at all. If you’re traveling south on Main Street, there’s nothing to indicate that there’s parking available here.
This parking lot is convenient for the strip of businesses along Main Street, like Supreme Bakery. It’s an alternative to street parking on Main Street, which can put you on the opposite side of the street with no convenient way to cross to the businesses.
Valley Road Lot
The last major lot is the Valley Road parking lot. It’s behind the businesses at the intersection of Northfield Ave and Main Street. The lot includes 86 total spaces with 21 set aside for permits.
The entrance to this lot is on Valley Road. The sign is obscured by the landscaping and there’s no actual sign where cars enter and exit the parking lot. Whether you approach the area from Northfield Ave or Main Street, there are no other signs indicating there is a parking lot in the area. The lot also connects to the supermarket parking lot and you can exit from the back on Jefferson Street in Orange.
This parking lot is convenient to the post office, Benji’s, and some other businesses along Main Street and across the road on Valley Street.
Hazel Ave Lot
The other lot worth pointing out is the Hazel Ave Lot. It’s at the bottom of Hazel Ave near its terminus at Valley Road. It’s a much smaller lot, with only ten spots. All of the spots are metered during the day, with permits for overnight parking.
There is a sign in the back of the parking lot identifying it as a municipal lot. But it’s a plain white sign that is easy to miss. I’ve driven through the area many times and never realized it was a municipal lot. On street parking can also be particularly tough to find in this area.
This is across the street from Luna Stage. The West Orange Arts Council, Tacos Locos, and a few other businesses along Valley Road are in the area.
What Should We Do About This?
The first and most obvious thing we should do is increase and improve signage so that people actually see these parking lots while they are driving around town.
Verona has a municipal lot behind the businesses on Bloomfield Ave at the end of Lakeside Ave. I passed through the area on my run recently, and I noticed at least three signs directing people towards the parking lot.
One was on Lakeside Ave as you approach the intersection with Bloomfield Ave. Two were on Bloomfield Ave as you approach Park Place heading westbound. There may be more on Bloomfield Ave if you come from the other direction.
These signs are relatively new, and they bear the name of a sponsoring local business at the bottom. They’re also clearly visible from the street, with no other signs attached to the same post and with no landscaping in the way.
We could follow Verona’s lead and have local businesses sponsor these signs. Or it could be a project funded by the Downtown Alliance.
Next, we need to do a better job of publicizing the information. Searching the internet, I found an old post on the Downtown Alliance’s page and a newer Facebook post on their page from 2023. But there’s nothing on the township website, and two of the lots don’t exist on Google Maps as searchable places.
The Downtown Alliance and/or the Public Relations Commission could take the lead on this. But some simple improvements include a) listing each lot as a place on Google Maps so it’s searchable and linkable, b) including detailed information on the township website, and c) encouraging local businesses to note the parking options on their websites and/or social media.
But the bottom line is: these parking lots should be easily visible from the street and well publicized on the Internet. No one should live in town and travel through downtown and not realize there are parking lots available.
What’s the Bigger Vision for Parking?
Better signage and promotion is a small step we can take to improve parking and support businesses in the area. It’s not expensive, and it could be funded through sponsorships.
But there’s a bigger question of how well these lots are maintained and monitored. When I passed through the Hazel Ave lot, the meters didn’t work. Many of the meters throughout the lots seem to be broken. And it’s unclear how well any of the regulations, including permits, are enforced.
Last year, Dynamic Traffic conducted a parking study throughout town. Part of this focused on parking issues in the Valley and the Heights. But another part of it focused on the underutilization of our parking lots.
Their main suggestion for both the parking lots and the on street parking: eliminate the old meters, install new modern payment infrastructure, and hire part time enforcement officers to regularly enforce the regulations.
This helps support businesses by ensuring that spaces aren’t misused by residents and employees. They should turnover frequently and be available for customers.
It also generates revenue for the town. The upfront investment would be about $600,000. Their projections suggest it would only take 2-3 years to fully cover that cost. And if we bonded it out, we could a) guarantee payment of those bonds with a projected $4 million over ten years and b) generate additional revenue in each of those years. This would be a great example of a project worth using debt to finance.
The parking study also included other municipal lots – including the parking lot by the library and the lots up by Eagle Rock and Pleasant Valley Way. There are other opportunities to use these for commuter parking for the jitney and/or for additional permit parking. But that’s a conversation for another day.
Looking at the long term, both the Valley Road and George Quigley Parking Lots have large enough footprints that they could support parking garages. It would be premature to build that kind of structure today. But if those businesses corridors develop to the point that there’s additional parking demand, it may be worth a) creating a parking authority or utility and b) investing in a garage.
To help support businesses downtown, here are my commitments on these parking lots:
- In the first 100 days, work with the Downtown Alliance to develop a plan to improve signage and visibility for these parking lots.
- In the first 100 days, charge the Downtown Alliance and the Public Relations Commission with developing a plan to better publicize and promote these parking lots.
- Complete the necessary improvements to modernize the infrastructure in 2027, so that anticipated revenue can be included in ther 2027 and/or 2028 budgets.