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The Cambridge City Council’s Ordinance Committee advanced a zoning petition to create “flexible parking corridors” in an effort to reduce restrictions on off-street parking at a Thursday meeting.
The measure, which requires another vote from the Council before it is approved, would unlock parking spaces currently restricted for specific uses on streets including Brattle Street, Broadway, Massachusetts Avenue, and Mount Auburn Street.
Jason Alves, executive director of the East Cambridge Business Association, said the petition aims to free up metered parking spaces by allowing business owners and employees to use off-street parking.
“If we can move them off the metered spaces, obviously it frees up spaces, and that can be used by the patrons,” he said.
The new regulations would repurpose underutilized parking facilities designated for employees for commercial use. The measure would also open small parking facilities — containing five to 19 spaces — for commercial or non-residential use without requiring a parking and transportation demand management plan.
Some attendees questioned whether the zoning petition ran contrary to the city’s mission of encouraging residents to use public transport and reduce air pollution.
“I worry that conferring this level of flexibility and affording greater convenience for drivers and parkers is at odds with Cambridge’s broader sustainability and transportation goals,” Cambridge resident Kristen Cheng said at the meeting.
In response, Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern said the issue requires “a give and take.”
“This is a give and take, trying to balance all the different needs that people have for mobility,” McGovern said. “When we talk about installing bike lanes and taking away parking, one of the things we say is that our streets are only so wide. We can only do so much.”
Alves also pointed out that no new spaces will be built under the proposal.
“We’re just unlocking unused ones,” he said.
Councillor Ayesha M. Wilson also raised concerns about regulating the price of parking. Under the proposal, lot owners would have control over the prices of their parking spots.
“I’m really thinking about small business owners, and how they will go into partnership with space owners to really figure out what’s a reasonable dollar amount,” she said.
Even if the measure is approved by the Council, it will not be implemented until early next year, according to McGovern.
“Nothing can happen until we pass this at City Council," he said. "It has to go through a first reading, a second reading. It has to sit on the agenda. So we cannot pass this until, at the earliest, Feb. 3."
