Bay Shore Residents, Business Owners Oppose Parking Meter Plan

Only one month after the Town of Islip started a pilot program to install parking meters in the downtown Bay Shore area, many local residents and business owners have expressed their opposition to the project.

In April, the Town started expanding the parking meter plan started in 2014 by adding meters at certain town parking lots including:

• The Town Lot at South Park Avenue and Gibson Street
• The Town Lot at Maple Avenue and Gibson Street
• The Town Lots along Gibson Street between Maple Avenue and Shore Lane
• The Town Lots along the south side of Mechanicsville Road between Park Avenue and Third Avenue
• A portion of the Town Lot west of North Park Avenue between Mechanicsville and Main Street

All other Town parking lots still remain free.

The metered lots were divided into sections with 4-hour limit parking (for downtown shoppers, visitors, and restaurant patrons) and 12-hour parking (for downtown employees). Overnight parking is not permitted at the lots.

At a recent public meeting to discuss the plan, over 200 local residents and business owners spoke on the plan, many expressing their concern over adding parking meters.

"I think when it comes to paying to park a car that you already have the payment for and the insurance for just to go enjoy your own time in a town where you're going to be spending the money anyway," Edward Troise, who works at Tula Kitchen in Bay Shore, told Fios1. "I think it's a little crazy to have to pay just to park your car."

The plan would turn over 600 parking spots into paid metered parking.

President of the Greater Bay Shore Chamber of Commerce, Donna Periconi, called the plan a “discriminatory taxation” since Bay Shore is the only hamlet within Islip Town that would have paid meters installed, according to a report in Newsday.

Town officials state that the plan was implemented to promote turnover in the parking spaces that are most important to the "economic well-being" of downtown Bay Shore -- those serving downtown shoppers, restaurant/pub patrons and visitors.

In addition, the Town claims that the program was put in place to significantly reduce the impact of Fire Island “Ferry” parkers taking up parking spaces intended for downtown businesses during the summer.

Employees who work in the area who want to park in one of the metered parking lots can purchase an “E” Stickers for $90 per year which will not guarantee a spot but will allow employees to park in any designated 12-hour limit Metered parking space without feeding the meter.

Downtown residents living in or adjacent to the Meter Zones can get a free a Downtown Resident “R” Sticker to allow them to park in all downtown Lots for free. However, an “R” sticker does not allow free parking in metered spaces on the Downtown Streets.

Trish Bergin Weichbrodt said at the meeting that Town officials "promised" locals that if the program affected Bay Shore business that they would "significantly pull back on the program or eliminate it completely," according to a report in Newsday.

What do you think?