By Dan Aceto

Staff Writer

Beachgoers will be able to park along Bayview Avenue at Higgins Beach next summer with changes last week to the on-street parking ordinance.

The changes will allow one-hour on-street parking between Pearl and Morning streets on Bayview Avenue 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. from May 1 to Sept. 15.

The town also will create a five-minute drop-off zone of about 100 feet along Bayview Avenue from Pearl to Ashton streets.

While parking will remain unrestricted on Bayview Avenue during the off-season, additional parking won’t be allowed on side streets in the Higgins Beach community.

A town committee last November proposed the five-minute drop-off zone to provide dog walkers and other pedestrians beach access.

Several members of the committee cited nudity and unlawful behavior by surfers as reasons to eliminate year-round on-street parking on Bayview Avenue.

 The council revisited the issue in December when Chairman Judith Roy proposed one-hour parking year-round on Bayview Avenue to the end of Vesper Street in addition to the drop-off zone.

At a second public hearing last week residents voiced concerns that on-street parking during summer might increase pedestrian accidents.

Scarborough resident David Cain said drivers might become distracted while parallel parking during high traffic hours.

“It kind of reminds me of the Maine Mall at Christmastime. I think this is a liability issue that the town should consider more seriously,” Cain said.

Thomas Curley, a Scarborough resident, said Higgins Beach is different from other beaches in town for one reason. 

“They’re not communities,” Curley said of the town’s other beaches.

Councilor Mike Wood agreed with residents on the issue of safety. 

“I firmly believe that adding parking to Bayview during the summertime invites additional challenges to that very dense area that I don’t wish to entertain,” he said.

However Roy dismissed residents’ concerns about parking safety during summer.

“One of the issues that I’ve heard over and over, is safety, safety, safety, safety,” Roy said. 

 “This is not going to be written in stone,” Roy said of ordinance changes. “I would also ask somewhere down the line that we make it our absolute intent that this be reviewed by December 2011, whatever it ends up as, because I think that’s really important.” 

Scarborough resident Melissa Carifio said she would like to see time-restricted parking during the off-season. She said she was concerned emergency vehicles might be unable to navigate around parked cars. Time-restricted parking is commonly used where there is predictable demand for on-street parking, she said.

“The streets around Hadlock Field in Portland limit parking to one hour and the streets around Deering High School, the University of Southern Maine and South Portland High School all have time- limited parking as well,” said Carifio. “Certainly no one believes that there is any attempt to limit access to the schools or Hadlock Field. Rather, time limits are seen for what they are – an attempt to direct longer-term parking to the parking lot, convenience for short-term users and to manage traffic flow.”

Scarborough resident Ben Keller supported on-street beach parking during the off-season with footage of Bayview Avenue from a time-lapse camera. The footage also showed town plows maneuvering around cars without incident on Bayview Avenue, Keller said.

“This current time lapse continues to support the fact that there are no safety or operational issues because of on-street parking in the off-season at Higgins beach,” Keller said.

Additional beach parking will be available this summer at a lot the town purchased from owners of the Higgins Beach Inn. 

Town Manager Tom Hall said the town set aside $300,000 for development of the lot to include bathrooms and changing rooms, 62 parking spaces and possibly an automated gate system. 

Wood said that while parking at the town lot may not be as close as some residents would like, it will provide beachgoers ample access the beach. 

“I certainly enjoy parking as close as I can to the front door of my neighborhood grocery store, but sometimes I just accept the fact I’m going to walk,” said Wood.