Village works toward overnight parking rules

The Village Board is reviewing proposed amendments to a local law intended to keep vehicle owners from monopolizing parking spaces in the six municipal lots.

The proposals were drafted by an attorney and discussed during a board meeting Monday. They call for limiting overnight parking in the lots to one night.

Some board members were caught off guard by the proposal. Trustee Jeff Helmuth said the board previously recognized that some residents were using spaces because they don’t have other off-street parking.

“I thought we desired up to two weeks long-term parking, so to speak, where as this reads just no two consecutive nights,” he said.

Current regulations prohibit parking in the municipal lots from 2 to 6 a.m., but Saugerties police said earlier this month that there are no rules that can force drivers to move registered vehicles to a different location.

“One of the issues that we have run into as a police department is people are using those lots as their own personal long-term parking,” Sgt. Jorge Castagnola said. “Especially during the wintertime, we have cars that are parked there for six months out of the year, never moved, in one spot with two to three feet of snow on top of them.”

Under the proposed regulations, there would be designated spaces for:

• Sixteen vehicles in the John Street lot behind Village Hall, which has a total of 44 spaces.

• Thirty-six vehicles in the Partition and Russell streets lot, which has 88 spaces.

• Four vehicles in the Ulster Avenue and High Street lot, which has nine spaces.

• Five vehicles in the Tina Chorvas Memorial Waterfront Lot on East Bridge Street, which has 14 spaces.

• Three vehicles in the village beach lot on South Partition Street, which has 12 spaces.

• Four vehicles in the village beach lot on Hill Street, which has 10 spaces.