Glenn Gerace said he has a Maine handicap placard that allows him to park within 200 feet of his destination, but a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, city ordinance says he has to park 500 feet away, after three hours.
Gerace has owned businesses across the border in Portsmouth’s Market Square since 1986, when he first opened the City & Country home store. For the past seven years he’s owned Goods at 113 Market St., in front of which he parks his Volkswagen when he arrives to open the shop in the mornings. He’s allowed three free hours in the spot because of the handicap placard he received from his home state of Maine, based on verified medical documentation.
But after three hours of parking in front of his Portsmouth business, he now has to move his car at least 500 feet away.
A sign on the meter in front of Gerace’s store reads, “Three hour limit applies to all vehicles and spaces including handicap.” Newly enforced, said Gerace, is that the parking-spots shuffle requires people to move 500 feet from their original parking spot.
“If I can’t walk 200 feet,” according to his medical documentation and placard, “how can you make me move 500 feet away?” Gerace asked. “I work here.”
On Sept. 30, Gerace got a $15 parking ticket, which notes he had not moved 500 feet from where he was parked the three hours prior. Last weekend, he said, he went to move his car after the three hours, drove to the High-Hanover parking garage, saw it was posted as full, then drove around in circles until he found a spot far from his business.
He said he knew “the law was coming” at the start of the summer season, contacted city and state officials for clarification and everyone was responsive, kind and informative. In spite of that, he said, he’s still stuck many times being forced to park more than twice the distance than his medically-approved placard allows.
He said the new ordinance was passed in June, but “they just started enforcing.”
According to the city’s parking ordinance, Gerace’s business is in the “High Occupancy Meter Zone,” where “time limits apply to all parking spaces, whether or not they are accessible spaces.” He said he’d like to see the ordinance changed so it matches the terms of his handicap placard.
“You tell me the rules, I follow them,” he said.
City Attorney Robert Sullivan said New Hampshire law applies when someone from another state is in New Hampshire. He said the New Hampshire Governor’s Commission on Disabilities guidelines say cities and towns can offer free parking to people with handicap placards, but can also set time limits.
“It comes down to the time,” said Public Works Director Peter Rice, who added that Gerace could park at the public parking garage for free.
Rice said the parking garage is about 200 feet from Gerace’s store, which Gerace disputed.
“We appreciate his frustration, but it’s city parking,” Rice said. “It’s intended to keep people from camping out in a parking spot all day so people can shop there.”
Gerace said his beef remains about the 500-foot distance newly mandated by the city.
According to city officials, Gerace has two options; park in the public garage, or petition the Parking and Traffic and Safety Committee for a change of the ordinance.
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