Planned parking rules draw objections
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. » The Village Board will assess whether more latitude is needed in granting residents who lack driveways access to long-term parking in municipal lots.
“We have no driveway,” village resident Michael Nelson said during a public hearing Monday. “The only way to get a driveway is for the village to take two 25-foot trees down in front of our house and pull up a telephone pole and move it across the street. Then, [if] we pull up the shrubbery, we still couldn’t get two cars parked up to the front porch.”
The board drafted a proposal to restrict long-term use of municipal lots after local police said they had no enforcement authority that would require vehicles to be moved from the lots or be towed.
“The main part of this [proposed] law is to get rid of the vehicles,” village Mayor Bill Murphy said. “People just leave the vehicles in our parking lots, thinking they can just store them there and leave them there for a year at a time.”
Under the proposed regulations, there would be designated overnight parking spaces for:
• Sixteen vehicles in the John Street lot, behind the Village Hall.
• Thirty-six vehicles in the lot at Partition and Russell streets.
• Four vehicles in the lot at Ulster Avenue and High Street.
• Five vehicles in the Tina Chorvas Memorial Waterfront Lot on East Bridge Street.
• Three vehicles in the village beach lot on South Partition Street.
• Four vehicles in the village beach lot on Hill Street.
The proposals would limit overnight use of municipal lots to 14 nights with a permit and two nights without a permit.
Use of the lots would be capped at 16 hours during any 24-hour period, though the regulations would be suspended for emergencies and snow removal.
Village resident Stacy Estrella, like Nelson, said the new rules could created problems for her because she doesn’t have a driveway.
“I don’t have any place to park,” Estrella said. “I travel as a consultant. Who moves my car when I’m not here?”
The Village Board will consider whether changes to the proposed law are needed before taking further action.