Route 1 Parking Options Set to Expand Soon

Motorists will soon, officially, have access to more than 100 new parking spaces in downtown Hyattsville. 

Jim Chandler, director of community and economic development for the city of Hyattsville, said that t will be done with ongoing renovations within three weeks. 

There is one small hiccup: the Hamilton Street parking lot needs about $56,000 in additional work not anticipated in the original work order. According to Chandler, contractors discovered that almost the entire base layer of the Hamilton Street parking lot needed to be replaced. The original work order estimated that only 20 percent of that lots base layer would need to be replaced. 

$3,000 of the additional work order is also slated for changes to curbing in the lot to better facilitate stormwater management. 

The entire downtown parking lot rehabilitation program now costs roughly $495,000.

After the meeting, Chandler said that the city will soon be moving forward on installing parking meters on roughly new 60 parking spaces on Baltimore Avenue in downtown Hyattsville. 

According to Chandler, the State Highway Administration has corrected some issues with signage for the new on-street parking which did not always accurately or plainly state where one could and could not park on Hyattsville's downtown Route 1 corridor. 

That had left city officials asking motorists to refrain from parking on-street downtown until signage issues were worked out.

Once the meters are installed, motorists will be able to park at metered spaces in downtown Hyattsville at any time except for the morning and evening rush hours. 

That means no parking on Route 1 between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.