What’s Causing Dover’s Parking Problems?
A busy downtown, overcrowded housing, and looming developments all contribute to challenges. Council may decide tonight.
The description sounds almost quaint: “Tightly packed, pedestrian-scaled
neighborhoods.”
The phrase is from a planning report called the Municipal Self-Assessment (MSA), which the Town of Dover first filed in 2008 and updated in 2022.
The MSA said early Dover planners saw the town as “an iteration of the great communities early settlers built from what was learned living in the traditional European communities from where they came.”
Great.
Now add a few thousand modern vehicles to historic streets designed for walking, and you have the issue that has engaged residents and officials for the past year: Where to park all those cars.
“There were trolleys on Blackwell Street and neighborhoods filled with small, 50-by-100-foot lots,” said Mayor James P. Dodd. Dover was not built for cars, he said.
And in the middle of what became residential neighborhoods are the remnants of Dover’s industrial age: Mills and warehouses, railroad buildings, parking lots where once stood the iron mills, most built before the arrival of the automobile, and now surrounded by streets lined with homes and cars.
Fourth Ward Councilman Arturo B. Santana has a pretty clear view of the issue after living here for 40 years.
“I’ve lived in Dover my entire life, and I’ve never seen our parking situation as challenging as it is today. Streets that I remember growing up on, where there was always room to park, are now lined with vehicles from one end to the other,” Santana said.
That’s why Santana is serving on the residential parking committee, which was created in January. The committee of officials and residents is charged with untangling the confusion caused by a detailed, now-suspended June 2025 parking ordinance and the continuing outcry of residents who felt left out of the original planning for the ordinance and subsequent public discussions.
There’s also this: Dover’s parking rules were generally in place to regulate parking in municipal lots and along downtown streets, not who could park in front of a house on Richards Avenue.
The concern took many forms, including:
Why can’t I park in front of my house when I get home from work?
Where will my guests park?
Where will my kid park their new car?
The outrage worked.
Following two intense public meetings on the issue in December 2025, Mayor Dodd in January suspended the new parking regulations. He said the town would provide more information to the public, called for more study of the issue, and created the committee on which Santana serves.
“The decision comes directly from listening to our residents. We have heard the concern raised by members of the community, and it is clear that more dialogue and refinement are needed,” he said.
The residential parking committee was given four tasks:
Review the current proposed ordinance;
Gather community feedback and concerns;
Recommend revisions and improvements, and
Guide a thoughtful and transparent rollout process.
In July, Santana said the process was ongoing.
“We revisited the residential parking plan and made several improvements to make it smoother and more practical for our residents,” he said. “This is all new for Dover. We’ve looked at what has worked in other towns, taken the best ideas, and adapted them to fit Dover’s needs. Every community is different, so our goal has been to build a system that works for our residents, businesses, and visitors—not simply copy another town’s plan.”
The changes are a work in progress, Santana said, and will be released when the work is
completed.
“Some of the biggest improvements we made came directly from the voices and concerns of our residents—people who took the time to participate, ask questions, and get involved. That’s what this committee is all about. It’s an interactive process, and as we roll out this plan, we’ll continue to evaluate how it’s working, make adjustments where needed, and remain diligent in getting it right. We will continue to rely on the input of our residents because your feedback is essential to making this plan successful.”
At its September 8 meeting, Town Council voted on the new parking meters that began popping up on downtown business-district parking spots before the second reading of the pending proposal. Paper signs were added to the meters, letting residents know that meter enforcement would begin on September 14. The council members will face two votes on parking-specific ordinances at tonight's meeting:
FIRST READING:
a. Ordinance 18-2026 An Ordinance of the Mayor and Town Council of the Town of
Dover, County of Morris, the State of New Jersey, Amending the Town of Dover Parking
Utility’s Regulations
b. Ordinance 25-2026 An Ordinance of the Mayor and Town Council of the Town of
Dover, County of Morris, the State of New Jersey, Establishing the Town of Dover’s
Downtown Pay-to-Park Meter Rates
Council will also vote on developments that could provide further stress on its parking issues:
ORDINANCES FOR SECOND READING, PUBLIC HEARING AND ADOPTION:
a. Ordinance 21-2026 An Ordinance of the Town of Dover, County of Morris, State of New Jersey, Adopting the Redevelopment Plan for the 1 Towpath Square / Harry Loory Redevelopment Area (Block 1205, Lots 1, 2, 10, 11, 12 and 13 and Block 1206, Lot 16)
b. Ordinance 22-2026 An Ordinance of the Town of Dover, County of Morris, State of New Jersey, Adopting the Redevelopment Plan Block 1206, Lots 2, 3, 4 & 5 (North Warren Street & West Blackwell Street)
c. Ordinance 23-2026 An Ordinance of the Town of Dover, County of Morris, State of New Jersey, Adopting the Redevelopment Plan for Block 703, Lot 6.01 (Formerly Part of, and Also Known as Lot 6) (200 / 220 West Clinton Street – Dover Tubular Site)
d. Ordinance 24-2026 An Ordinance of the Town of Dover, County of Morris, State of New Jersey, Adopting the Baker Mansion Redevelopment Plan for Block 305, Lot 7 (45Lehigh Street)
“We appreciate the community’s engagement and patience,” Dodd said. “This pause allows us to do this the right way — together.” A series of public meetings are planned, he said. No timetable has been set to introduce a new parking ordinance.
So, the ordinance went away, but the vehicles didn’t.
Nor did the reasons for the parking dilemma, which range from population growth, including
Allegations of overcrowded housing that violates zoning codes, also known as “stacking”; increasing redevelopment projects around town, including the 640-unit retail-and-residential complex destined for Bassett Highway; and, as the recent kerfuffle indicates, the lack of a coherent parking plan.
So, how many vehicles are there in Dover?
It’s a moving target, including cars owned by residents, commuters, shoppers, and employees.
A standard measure governments use is two cars per household. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Dover has 6,661 households. In theory, that’s 13,322 vehicles, but that number does not include non-drivers. Of those households, about 3,050 are single-family homes, 45 percent of which, or 1,375, have driveways, census data said. The census said 73 percent of Dover households are family households. So, again, in theory, about 1,800 Dover single-family homes need on-street parking.
After vehicles and driveways, the next concern is overcrowding and available housing stock.
Overcrowded housing is a statewide issue, but no statewide count exists. The state Department of Community Affairs does not maintain a total of illegal units because enforcement is a local municipal responsibility.
Mayor Dodd said overcrowded housing violations are a long-time issue in Dover.
During the candidates' debate in 2023 when he was running for his current term in office, he said, “I think it’s no secret that since COVID, stacking and overcrowding has multiplied in the town of Dover to staggering numbers, to where people come home from work and don’t have a place to park on their street anymore. There’s five or six families living in a single-family home.”
In that election, he called for increased funding for the code enforcement office.
Further, the 2020 report said, “The current issue of stacking and overcrowding in town
residences, which would not be reflected in decennial census data, has led many Dover
residents and officials to believe that the unreported population in town leads to the total population to pass 19,632 persons.”
In 2021, the code enforcement department's salary line was $244,407. The 2022 MSA supported Dodd’s concerns.
The 2022 MSA concluded, “residential overcrowding in Dover, driven by high rents and
economic pressures, remains a pressing issue. The town’s overcrowding rate sits at 4.5
percent—well above the 3.4 percent national average. This density creates heavy strain on local parking, public schools, and fire safety, as multiple families frequently occupy single-family homes.”
In 2024, Dodd’s first year in his new term, the salary line was increased to $343,505.
The 2025 U.S. Census estimate placed Dover population at 18,919, and said there were 2.8 persons per household, slightly higher than the state average of 2.62 persons per household.
“There have been reports and speculation of stacking and overcrowding, which led town
officials to believe that the current population living in Dover is closer to 20,000, rather
than 18,000,” the MSA stated.
Another report suggested an imbalance between Dover’s population growth and the number of new housing units. According to a recent report filed with the State of New Jersey examining Dover’s Round Four affordable housing requirements, “Since 1989, Dover has constructed 773 new homes over three-and-a-half decades.”
The MSA tracked a surge in population growth to the 1990s “when Dover experienced an
increase in population of 3,073 residents between 1990 and 2000, an increase of 20.33 percent
over the 1990 population compared to an 11.6 percent increase in Morris County.”
According to the Census Bureau, the population grew by about 3,000 people in that time.
In the 2026 town budget, the code enforcement department's salary line was $473,970.
The third element in this scenario combines cars and housing: Dover's current redevelopment.
The application that raised concerns last year while the parking ordinance was under discussion was the proposed Bassett Highway redevelopment project at the former Ulster Iron Works site, which closed in the 1950s. The site is in the larger Bassett Highway Redevelopment plan area.
That area, from Blackwell Street to the Rockaway River and North Sussex Street to Dewey Avenue, was deemed in 2019 to need redevelopment.
The Bassett Highway application, in May before the planning board, proposes to construct three buildings containing 640 housing units, 11,733 square feet of retail/commercial space and 1,065 parking spaces.
Mayor Dodd said the site has been underutilized for decades. Longtime residents remember that after the ironworks closed, it became a drive-in movie theater before it became a shopping and office center that fronted a large parking lot along the Rockaway River.
The mayor says the loss of that parking lot should be mitigated because the new project is planned in three phases.
Key background stated in the 2017 project description of the Bassett Highway redevelopment plan is this: “The Town’s Governing Body adopted a Resolution on August 9, 2006 declaring all land within the municipal boundaries of the Town of Dover as meeting the statutory criteria for designation as an ‘Area in Need of Rehabilitation’ as defined in the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law. This declaration was based on the fact that more than 50 percent of the housing stock is at least 50 years old, and the majority of the water and sewer infrastructure is at least 50 years old and is in need of repair or substantial maintenance.”
Nearly 20 years ago, Dover originally began the state-required Plan Endorsement and Community Visioning Process. The state considers Dover a town center for planning purposes.
“The expectations and Master Plan goals for the Town have remained
relatively static,” the MSA stated. “However, Dover recognizes that the static nature of the overall Master Planning Goals may not be concurrent with the goals (of) the community and residents.”
In 2014, the town developed a plan called the Downtown Scattered Site Development Plan.
In 2022, Dover committed to planning for transit-oriented development on underutilized town-owned surface parking lots near the train station in the downtown, as well as blighted properties along Blackwell Street west of South Salem Street.
In 2019, the NJTransit station served 942 daily riders. In 2024, riders dipped to 665 passengers a day.
In January, Dover was awarded $1.4 million for renovations to the train station and grounds to improve customer service and safety.
The transit lots have 915 parking spaces.
Plans for the transit lots feature small housing developments, including 13 units each on Lot B, the main lot near the train station, and Lot C on Orchard Street. That could cost more parking spots.
The current development boost, approved this spring by Dover Town Council, has been long overdue. Developers took many questions and calls for data and clarification during the 2026 deliberation and approval from members of the Planning Board, Council, and residents. Most focused on the projects’ impact on parking and traffic. The developers’ engineers and traffic experts claimed that the new apartments will include commuters who will travel almost exclusively by NJTransit. Many in Dover are skeptical.
Mayor Dodd has long supported redevelopment plans, saying they were essential sources of revenue for the town, modeled on Morristown’s “transit village” reinvention. He has steadfastly said that, even with housing on those lots, they could serve commuters during the day and relieve overcrowded neighborhood streets at night.
In 2020, the MSA report said, “Regardless of whether Dover, through its planning efforts, reduces the dependency of the automobile through its land use practices, it will need to be proactive in how it delivers parking for its businesses, community groups, commuters, visitors, and residents.”
Among the goals: Balance the needs for public parking with downtown business (needs) and negotiate the parking deficiencies (seen in) planning and zoning applicants, particularly in the downtown.
Maybe that’s the way back to those “pedestrian-scaled neighborhoods.”
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