Visitors to Maplewood Village have likely noticed that parking has become more challenging since demolition began on the former Post Office site, which led to some spaces being temporarily blocked.
Good news for shoppers and merchants: through some expedited re-striping of existing spaces, the town center will gain a few more spots.
“The town engineer was planning on doing this striping during the fall,” explained Deputy Mayor Nancy Adams. “[However], we directed him to get at least this part of the striping planned done sooner…while school is out and construction is going on.”
Here are a few areas that will be affected:
* The township will re-stripe parking spaces for shoppers/merchants in the Village on Dunnell Road behind Maplewood Middle School. Right now people are wasting a lot of space when they park in the spots along the railroad tracks behind the school, because current striping has worn off and brush has grown over the curb stops, said Adams.
The plan is to clear the debris and re-stripe, which will make the parking area more efficient. Cars will be able to pull farther into the space, allowing for slightly wider driving lanes, and striping will delineate the spaces clearly, enabling cars to be parked more efficiently.
Estimated gain: 3-5 parking spaces.
* On Maplewood Avenue by the new Post Office (between Baker and Lenox), the parallel space at the end will be transformed into two diagonal spaces. Originally the space was made parallel to accommodate a potentially longer mail delivery truck, but it turned out the Post Office doesn’t need to use larger trucks, Adams said.
Estimated gain: one parking space.
In the New Jersey Transit parking lot on the south end of Maplewood Avenue (by the NJ Dance School), the engineer will seek to squeeze another few spaces between existing commuter and merchant parking. “If we can, we will re-stripe or add striping to the north end of those existing parking spaces,” said Adams. “Currently, these are commuter spots until 9 a.m. and then are open to merchants and shoppers.”
Estimated gain: 2-3 parking spaces.
