New Statehouse parking plan may surface soon
Talk of garage changes drive public opposition
By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... After months of discussion, a new parking plan for the New Jersey Statehouse complex may be presented at the next meeting of the Statehouse Joint Management Commission set for later in July. [2025]
.....
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 reconnect underwent a five-year, $283 million face lift - to find and pay for parking in above-ground lots blocks away.
..... Eric Brophy, a deputy chief of staff for Governor Phil Murphy who chairs the commission, said there is not a complete plan but that 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 23. [2025]
..... The commission discussed the parking plan and security related to parking for more than an hour in closed session during its July 8 [2025] meeting, the state police desk just outside the room sat understaffed.
.....
A few members of the public spoke out during the meeting against removing visitor parking form the garage.
..... 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 [2025] 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 we4re 931 violent crimes and 1,678 [property crimes reported in Trenton in 2023, the most recent data available.
..... The statehouse and parking garage, as well as many of the people working inside, form lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries to state troopers and tech support, are supported and funded by taxpayer money.
..... During both the April and May [2025] meetings, the commission discussed five alternative parking options that
require a walk of about five to seven minutes for members of the public visiting the complex. State employees may see their current assigned parking spots r4eassiggned to different lots to accommodate visitors 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