By Dolores Sauca Lorusso

The Hull Redevelopment Authority is considering changing the way it manages parking on its property next year, with members studying how to implement self-serve kiosks to collect parking fees from summer visitors.

At a recent meeting, Vice Chair Dan Kernan proposed that the board review current leases, contracts, and parking lot management. Kernan said he hopes that in 2024 to switch to a “parking kiosk service and extend property maintenance service.”

The board agreed to further research on using automated parking kiosks with human support; Kernan will gather feedback and come back to the board with a more formal parking proposal.

According to a handout Kernan provided, the “goals for this parking transition are to add visibility into the revenue and parking use, provide greater control over parking use levels and traffic, improve coordination with the town and DCR, increase revenue, and improve our parking service.”

Kernan described a parking kiosk as “the physical part of a cloud-based parking service.” Parking-As-A-Service (PAAS) generally includes the ability to accept money, including paper bills, coins, and credit cards; the ability to provide printed parking verification and pay-by-plate; provision of enforcement; the ability to control the amount of parking available; apps to let visitors know when lots are full; and detailed tracking and reports on parking use and revenue information.

“The range of services are incredibly diverse and provide greater control,” he said. “We can model after kiosks used by DCR, Trustees of Reservations, and other towns on the South Shore,” adding that companies have “solutions to map to anything we could want.”

PAAS service providers may not include property maintenance and may require that the HRA address daily cleanup and upkeep. Kernan proposed that the HRA “add nightly maintenance of parking area if needed, maintenance of improved landscaping, cleaning, and maintenance of the gazebo area.”

“It is definitely worth refining parking,” said member Bartley Kelly. “We should pick the machine that works best and be sure it falls under guidelines of legal, then bite the bullet to buy and install them. [The] first season there will also be staff, because even if it is automated, there will need to be bodies on the ground to direct traffic, cut grass, and cleanup… Going forward we can add on to it.”

Kernan said some of the parking kiosk companies offer “parking enforcement,” which he stressed is needed because “on Labor Day this year, people were parking on the sidewalk, but parking was the least of the worries for the police, they did not have the bandwidth to enforce parking because they had to deal with mischief.”

“The town has an issue enforcing parking restrictions that already exist,” Clerk Adrienne Paquin said. “Police are potentially not available to us when we need them because they are too busy.”

Many of the companies offer optimization and can watch traffic flow to adjust pricing during busy times to increase profits; however, Kernan and Paquin expressed their dislike of the “dynamic pricing” approach.

“I think that is terrible and mean-spirited,” Kernan said, indicating a preference for “reasonably fixed price for these services.”

Paquin agreed with Kernan regarding dynamic pricing. “Is the goal to provide a service to give access to the beach or to make as much money as possible?” she asked.

State-appointed HRA member Joan Senatore said that in Gloucester, people need to buy their ticket the day before because it “better controls the traffic flow.”

“I am in favor of moving forward with this. We should pilot on a smaller scale just on the Phipps Street lot,” said Paquin. “The town needs to train people to use public transportation.”

Paquin said the main lot should not be restricted and made fully available for events like the car show, carnival, and North East Public Power Association rodeo.

“Whatever we end up doing on the HRA will initiate a change for parking,” she said.

“It is trial and error…pilot the first season then have more data to evaluate other options,” said Senatore.

Kernan also suggested an update to the RFP process and seasonal for-profit leases such as those for food trucks and surf camps.

“This is something that members of the board have identified as a wanted improvement and [HRA attorney] Paula Devereaux suggested should be updated,” Kernan said. “All for-profit leases and/or RFPs should be consistent and follow the same [Massachusetts General Laws Chapter] 30B process.”

During their discussions, board members agreed it was necessary to have “clear requirements for aesthetics,” and the expected level of maintenance needs to be clarified in the RFP process.

Devereaux told Kernan that the board may include a requirement for “added transparency of revenue…however, enforcement and verification of the revenue is very unreliable.”

“The ability to capture enough data and evaluate in a credible manner is not in the realm of reality,” HRA Chair Dennis Zaia said. “I don’t put too much weight on it.”

Kernan said he would like the RFP process to give preference to local businesses if it is allowable under the law.

“There is not an all in one magic bullet…what are other outfits our size doing? Kiosks are off-the-shelf things. Everyone in the world seems to have one other than us,” said Kernan, who will continue to research parking options and update the RFP process.

At the meeting, select board member Jerry Taverna said he “applaud[s] the HRA for thinking out of the box and being willing to take a risk…this town is one we want to take a risk on.”

“We want to do the right thing and manage the processes well,” said Zaia. “Dan has gotten some clarity, and he will pull it together into a piece we can review.”

The next HRA meeting is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 8 at 6:30 p.m. over Zoom.

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