After years of debate about what to do about the city's parking problems, the city of Portsmouth will break ground on a new parking garage this week.
Portsmouth City Councilor Brad Lown says the city has been struggling with a parking shortage for more than 10 years.
“We’ve been told by a number of people that the parking shortage is acute that people aren’t going downtown -- people that might otherwise go downtown, not only residents but visitors, too.”
After years of heated debate about how to deal with the issue, city councilors agreed on a plan to build a new parking garage in 2015 in the city's North End, within walking distance to downtown. A groundbreaking ceremony is being held Wednesday afternoon.
The new garage will have 600 spaces and is expected to cost about 25 million dollars. It could be open as early as next fall.