ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Business owners and neighbors in Annapolis have formed the Annapolis Parking Alliance to address what they describe as a growing parking crisis in the city's downtown area.
The alliance comes as businesses report declining foot traffic tied to parking complications. Jennifer Sowers, owner of Level, a small plates lounge in downtown Annapolis, said customers are noticing the difference.
"I think that residents recognize that things aren't as easy as it used to be to come downtown and shop and dine with us and so we started to feel it," Sowers said.
Annapolis Parking Alliance forms to fight downtown parking problems
The City Dock Resilience Project eliminated an entire parking lot, and while the city opened additional space in the Mills Hillman Garage, that solution has created new problems. The garage uses both a ParkMobile app and a Premium Parking app, each with different codes for the same location.
"The parking apps are too complicated; there are three apps; that is way too many. The fees have increased as of last year; they haven't taken effect yet, but they have increased its just driven our business down over the last three years," Sowers said.
Drivers are also reporting confusion over parking tickets despite having paid through an app or credit card.
"There is sort of this situation where folks are confused on why they are getting a ticket when the credit card and the app says they have paid and so these are sort of technical consumer issues, and Premium Parking is our parking vendor they are accessible when you call them they do try to work with you but we are sort of consistently having those issues," Sowers said.
Business leaders and neighbors formed the Annapolis Parking Alliance just before the summer. On Wednesday, Sowers took to social media to share her concerns, saying she did not want Level to become another business forced to close.
"It saddens me to see so many of our fellow business owners closing their doors that should be a red flag over the past three years because we have seen so many of them," Sowers said.
Her post included a petition and information about the alliance, and it caught the attention of Teresa Giordino, who signed the Change.org petition in support.
"They don't even come down to Annapolis anymore because they can't park, and they are not going to walk when they are like 90 and 80 years old," Giordino said.
Giordino said she has watched what made Annapolis unique slowly disappear over the years.
"The mom-and-pop businesses that we grew up with, that the heart of families, grandparents, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, were all working together to make their family business work; they're gone, and that is what Annapolis is about," Giordino said.
Sowers said the alliance's goal is to push for progress before more businesses are affected.
"This is just a basic expectation of our parking obligation to our community, so we are hopeful that we can make progress because I think we have all been struggling for a couple of years and if this alliance can help break complacency around the parking concerns, then it's accomplished something," Sowers said.
The Annapolis Parking Alliance plans to hold a public meeting toward the end of September and is encouraging supporters to attend.
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