Recommendations Released from Downtown Greenfield Parking Study

GREENFIELD — Months of extensive research by Greenfield department heads and the consulting group Stantec culminated on June 12 with the presentation of the Downtown Greenfield Parking Study at John Zon Community Center. The recommendations generated from this process will help inform important updates to downtown parking.

Mayor Roxann Wedegartner utilized a $25,000 grant from the Massachusetts Downtown Initiative to hire Stantec for the parking study in December 2022. Stantec and Greenfield then hosted a public workshop on Jan. 31 to gather community input.

In the months that followed, Stantec established an inventory by gathering parking information in the winter and spring of 2023. It then extracted parking-utilization data in April to perform analysis on various components of the overall system.

Stantec concluded that 61% of downtown Greenfield parking spaces are located within one block of Main Street, while the overall utilization of parking remains relatively low across weekdays and weekends. The peak time for downtown parking, Thursdays at 10 a.m., featured a utilization rate of only 55%.

Stantec incorporated these findings as the foundation for its study. The study’s various recommendations center on Main Street parking needs, parking supply, pricing, and the overall management of parking systems. Wedegartner and Greenfield department heads will now parse through the findings with the goal of improving downtown parking operations.

“Mayor Wedegartner and the team who work on parking are really excited to see the recommendations from these experts,” Chief of Staff Danielle Letourneau said. “We are already digging in to see what can be implemented quickly, what will need more time to put in place, and what will need to happen further down the road with the Main Street project.”

The presentation can be viewed on Greenfield Community Television’s YouTube page.