(Credit: Courtesy Glens Falls, 2019)
As the City of Glens Falls awaits yet another parking study, some downtown business owners are pushing back on renewed parking enforcement. It’s the latest twist in what is becoming a top issue facing second-year Mayor Bill Collins.
Parking downtown has been an issue for decades. Plans for parking garages have come and gone. Committees have formed, meetings held. Problems have popped up, fixed by bandaids.
“We have no real parking plan,” Mayor Collins admitted to FoothillsBusinessDaily.com. “We have 30 years of reactive policies but no comprehensive plan.”
The Mayor says that is changing as the Common Council’s Special Projects Committee, chaired by Ward 5 Councilor Mary Gooden, tackles overnight parking, with an overall parking vision in its sights.
On Tuesday, the city contracted with retired City Clerk Robert Curtis to help revise the overnight parking plan, but at least one city official said off-the-record that he may be asked to step in on the larger overall revision.
Gooden said she was looking to Curtis’ expertise to help lead the committee. It has been at work on the issue since at least last April.
[Read more about Curtis’ hiring here.]
As well, the mayor and Economic Development Director Jeff Flagg have said they have seen raw data from an ongoing parking study commissioned mid-2022 by BFJ Planning, but are not sharing that yet as they wait for a report or a summary of the data.
M. David Howard, CEO of Erbessd Instruments at 19 Exchange St., is making sure the issue remains front and center.
Howard has emailed Collins, city leaders and the media regularly, updating his concerns and questions after the City on Jan. 1 started enforcing the two- or three-hour daytime limits on many downtown parking spots.
Bernie Gray, the Mayor’s Assistant, replied to Howard’s Thursday morning email, writing: “Mayor Collins asked me to reach out to you to let you know that he has meetings all day today, but is gathering the answers to your questions regarding parking issues. He will reply to you via email by the end of the day on Friday if that is acceptable with you.”
Howard is particularly concerned because the parking lot outside his building is restricted from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to cars with permits, but he submitted photos to City Hall of cars without permits or with notes stating they “called ahead for overnight parking.” The lot holds just under 25 cars.
Part of the issue is that parking on city streets between 2a.m. and 6 a.m. is illegal, but parking in most of the city-owned lots after 6p.m. until 9 a.m. is legal. As well, a car can stay in many lots without a permit for three hours starting at 9a.m., meaning that a driver could park in a city lot at 6 p.m. and return the next day at noon and have not broken city law at all.
The reinvigorated enforcement has resulted in 196 parking tickets and $5,020 in revenue for the City, according to City Clerk Megan Nolin, ending a nearly three-year “free pass” of sorts when the city did not enforce parking rules due to COVID pandemic.
[See our earlier coverage of the parking issues facing Glens Falls here.]
The City sells parking permits that allow for parking in many of the downtown lots and on the street. But those passes, which cost $180 a year, don’t guarantee the pass-holder a parking spot.
That, in turn, forces employees of downtown businesses to move their car two to four times a day to prevent a $30 ticket for violating the parking regulations, business owners argue.
Howard said he has purchased five parking permits for his employees and has had to pay at least one parking ticket.
“I’ve spent close to a thousand dollars for parking permits with no guarantee of spots,” he said. “The City is penalizing downtown workers.”
Other business owners have had some of the same complaints.
Yet some in city hall have heard from business owners who are happy that the city is enforcing the parking restrictions. Forcing workers to move their cars in high traffic areas such as Glen and Ridge streets makes way for shoppers, officials have told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com.
And now, Howard says snow removal issues are complicating matters, making things worse.
“We all understand parking is an issue for the entire city,” Howard wrote Thursday morning. “However the plan execution and enforcement strategy is not working. Nor is the parking policy execution and enforcement strategy fair to the business owners, residents, or employees of the downtown district who have fallen in line with the cities policy and purchased parking passes.”
Bill Dingman, district operations manager for Spot Coffee at 221 Glen Street, is also unhappy with the newly enhanced enforcement.
“I can’t have my employees leave every two hours to move their car,” he said. “Downtown workers allow us to stay open year-round. We’re asking for a common-sense solution, maybe a seasonal approach or a lower price if someone can prove they work downtown.
“I think business owners down here are all on the same page, and I don’t believe we were consulted. They had two years to figure it out. Good leadership reaches out and builds consensus, and doesn’t try to jam things down people’s throats. It seems too dictatorial.”