In recent years, competition for parking in downtown Haverhill has become intense. With a new parking garage opening soon—and a burgeoning downtown residential population—Haverhill recognized that it needed to act. However, varying opinions on how to manage parking had led to eight unsuccessful parking management plans over ten years.
To overcome the deadlock, Nelson\Nygaard’s approach looked at the entirety of the downtown to balance all stakeholder interests at once. Our utilization maps revealed that the overall supply of parking is never more than 63% utilized and the antiquated time-limit based management system was ineffective.
Key stakeholders and politicians were in disbelief of the facts and opposed change. Nelson\Nygaard stuck to the facts and demonstrated the need to introduce street pricing in Haverhill for the first time in 50 years, or the garage would be empty. With strong community support, the City Council ultimately voted 6-3 to support our historically significant plan.
Nelson\Nygaard then helped bring on a private vendor to implement and run the system for the first few years. Today, Haverhill has seen new development and business hours expand as a result of the parking system. The privatized contract results in nearly $100k a year for downtown improvements.