A new plan for parking at the NJ Statehouse may surface later this month
The joint management commission, a group of legislative directors and administration staffers responsible for managing the complex, established a security committee to examine security at the Statehouse complex in relation to parking and the planned park at the site.
There has been talk for months about removing access to the 140 visitor parking spots in the state police-guarded garage, which lies between the Statehouse and its annex on West State Street in Trenton. Removing public access to the garage would force guests to the complex -- which recently underwent a five-year, $283 million facelift -- to find and pay for parking in above-ground lots blocks away.
Eric Brophy, a deputy chief of staff for Gov. Phil Murphy who chairs the commission, said there is not a complete plan but said he hopes the committee will have something to present for the commission to take action on at the next meeting. That meeting is scheduled for July 22.
The commission discussed the parking plan and security related to parking for more than an hour in closed session during its July 8 meeting. For the duration of the meeting, the state police desk just outside the room sat unmanned.
There were a few members of the public who spoke out against the removal of visitor parking from the garage during the meeting.
They noted that the commission had yet to make any sort of parking plan publicly available and that removing visitor access to the garage would cause an impediment in visitor access to state government overall.
Brophy said in May that relocating visitor parking should be done "in the next four to eight weeks" and that shifting the visitor parking out of the Statehouse garage is a "security issue."
According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, there were 931 violent crimes and 1,678 property crimes reported in Trenton in 2023, the most recent data available.
Want to visit the NJ Statehouse? You may not be able to park in its garage
The Statehouse and parking garage, as well as many of the people working inside, from lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries to state troopers and tech support, are supported and funded by taxpayer money.
During both the April and May meetings, the commission discussed five alternative parking options that require about a walk of five to seven minutes for members of the public visiting the complex.
Lots currently used by state employees may see their assigned parking spots reassigned to different lots to accommodate visitor parking. That would be the case in the lots known as 5A and 5B, which are near the War Memorial.
Parking garages that are not state-owned, such as the Lafayette Garage or Liberty Commons Garage, have daily rates of $7 for two hours, $9 for four hours and $12 for 12 hours.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Statehouse parking plan for visitors may surface in 2025
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