Beach parking bingo

Town mulls expansion of Higgins Beach lot, against neighbors’ protests

Saoirse Kelly of Portland and Nick Benefico of South
Portland unload at the town-owned parking lot on Ocean
Avenue for an evening of surfing at Higgins Beach. In the
background is an area of wetland the town may fill in
to create an additional 22 parking spots.

SCARBOROUGH — In the ongoing skirmish over parking spots at Higgins Beach, a new chamber has been loaded. Now, it only remains to be seen if the Scarborough Town Council will actually pull the trigger.

Last week, the town received a Tier 1 permit from the state Department of Environmental Protections, giving it permission to backfill 4,925 square feet of freshwater wetland on property the town owns next to its recently rebuilt Ocean Avenue parking lot. Once developed, that land could be used to park an additional 22 cars in the 60-space lot.

“We have everything we need to proceed,” said Community Services Director Bruce Gullifer, who has helped spearhead development of the lot in the year since it was acquired from the Vasile family. “However, whether that area ever goes under construction, that will be a council decision.”

At least one Higgins homeowner is riled over the possibility.

Last year, Richard Valdmanis and his wife Kelly bought the home at 43 Ocean Ave. If expansion of the parking lot proceeds, Valdmanis said, his home will get boxed in on three sides.

“Our bias is obvious,” Valdmanis, who is out of the country this week, said in an email to The Current, “but we feel the expansion would affect the community more broadly. There’s the basic question of whether the beach can sustain many more visitors. We all know that at high tide, there’s not much sand and not much space to move. Adding parking capacity will worsen this problem, and all of the side effects that come with it, including littering and public drinking and smoking.”

Valdmanis has begun a PR campaign to win support based on environmental concerns and fears of neighborhood degradation, what he calls “suburban death.” A letter he sent out neighbors has received a handful of responses, he said.

Town Manager Tom Hall said a decision on whether to build out the lot could come as soon as “late September.” That’s when the council will conduct a workshop session to review how this season has gone, given the number of substantial changes made to parking rules at the shorefront community.

Last year, the town paid $1.27 million to buy and improve the Ocean Avenue lot from the Vasile family, using a Land for Maine’s Future grant. It then created an unloading zone and 12 one-hour parking spots on Bayview Avenue, right at the shorefront, while eliminating on-street parking everywhere else.

The idea, Councilor Michael Wood said, was to ease congestion on the narrow beach streets, which, he said, “had become a nightmare,” while also funneling parking into the town-owned lot.

In addition to the DEP permit, the council already has money set aside for the project. About $108,000 remains of the $300,000 the town bonded last year to develop the Ocean Avenue lot. Construction of the additional 22 spaces should cost about $35,000 and could begin before the snow flies, said Hall. 

However, like Gullifer, Hall stressed that receipt of the DEP permit, good for two years, does not necessarily mean the project will move forward.

“We have the financial resources, we have the permit, it’s really just a question of whether the council wishes to proceed,” said Hall. “Last year, when this was first presented, the wisdom of council – and I think it was absolutely the right thing to do – was to gather some data first on this season before making a decision.”

Hall is working to gather that data now. Among the figures he will present to the council is one detailing just how much the improved lot has been used. So far, of the 53 days since July 1, it has filled to capacity on 43 days, he said.

However, Valdmanis argues that the council may get a false impression of the need for more parking, based on skewed data.

“The town’s premise that an expansion might be needed because demand is high is flawed,” he wrote. “They priced the lot at $5 per day this summer, sharply below the rates at nearby state parks, guaranteeing in advance the lot would be full.”

Hall concedes that point.

“I think that’s a fair comment,” he said, when told of Valdmanis’ complaint. “I think the council consciously reduced that parking fee to draw business. Keep in mind, the council also added Higgins Beach into the ‘all-beach’ pass for town residents, at not extra cost to them.”

Meanwhile, the council must weigh not only the concerns of Valdmanis and his supporters, but also the decades-old delicate balance between local homeowners and area visitors.

Hall said there have been “predictable complaints” about abuse of the one-hour limit at the Bayview parking spots, especially when the summer reserve officers are not on duty.

Hall does say it has become clear to him that “it is critically important for public safety to that we build a conventional sidewalk along Bayview Avenue.”

Still, he said, he’s received “relatively few” complaints about the parking changes.

“It’s a different thing every year, but from my perspective, the changes this year have worked out well,” said South Portland surfer Nick Benefico, as he unloaded his board late Monday afternoon.

Of course, Benefico admits that’s partly because the town has yet to install an automated gate at the Ocean Avenue lot and, because the attendant knocks off at 5 p.m., just when surfing is allowed, parking has continued to be essentially free for him, with few days when he has had any trouble finding a spot at that time.

However, his surfing partner, Saoirse Kelly of Portland, said tension between surfers and locals continues unabated.

“Most people are nice enough,” she said, “but there are a few who have made it their mission to make it clear we are not wanted here. Just last week I had one old man tell me that if I want to surf at Higgins Beach, I should buy a home here.

“I’m like, why can’t you relax? You live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Can’t you just be happy with that?”

That conflict between people who live in a beautiful spot, people who want to visit it, and the town’s obligation to guarantee public access to the beach is unlikely to be resolved, whatever the council decides in September.

One person who knows that as well as anyone is Police Chief Robert Moulton, who began his career on the Higgins Beach foot patrol in 1977.

“I can tell you, the issues are all the same,” he said. “They’re maybe a little bit more pronounced now, I think, because a lot of the cottages have been turned into year-round homes, so there’s a little bit of a different expectation. But there’s always been a push-pull on parking down there.”