The City of Biddeford’s Downtown Committee made several modifications to the city’s new downtown parking program at their Monday night meeting. The parking program is set to begin on December 1 with these new details in place.

The Committee established the Yellow Lot (Downtown Lot) as a reserved lot for short-term parking only. The first hour of parking in this lot will be free of charge, and additional time in the lot can be purchased for the introductory hourly rate of $1. Long-term permit holders who were previously assigned to the Yellow Lot will be contacted by the City to reassign them to their preferred alternate lot.

The Downtown Committee also removed the restrictions on the number of long-term parking permits that can be sold for each lot, allowing permits to be sold until the lot reaches capacity. The City Council had originally established a cap on long-term parking permits in the parking ordinance, requiring that no more than 65% of available spaces in each lot could be sold for monthly parking. Because of this change, many of the individuals who were assigned a permit for the Yellow Lot will be able to move to the Green Lot (Federal/Franklin Street Lot) across the street, which was previously considered “sold out”.