BANGOR– The Business and Economic Development Committee will uphold certain measures implemented in the downtown to assist businesses affected by the pandemic.
Last year, city officials created 15-minute parking spots, expanded outdoor dining areas into parklets and seasonally closed Broad Street to vehicle traffic.
Tuesday afternoon they reviewed the Downtown Bangor Partnership’s survey results that showed feedback on the three measures.
“Parklets and the 15-minute parking spaces were very favorable, broad street the opinions were much more mixed. I think the stakeholders in general in downtown felt that there were a lot of positives to having the additional pedestrian space. However there were a number of businesses that very vocally were opposed to it and felt that it negatively impacted their businesses,” said Tanya Emery, the director of Bangor’s Community and Economic Development Department
The committee members ended up moving to continue having the 15-minute parking spots and parklets in 2021.
They also voted to modify the broad street closure, deciding to have the street opened to one lane with an expanded sidewalk.
