Town Addresses Lack of Parking in Huntington Village

Image of the Elm Street municipal parking lot via Google Maps

The Town of Huntington is looking to deal with the parking, or lack thereof, in Huntington Village by taking the steps to implement a parking garage.

The Town, in a request for proposal issued on Thursday, says it’s looking for an “aesthetically pleasing” parking structure either located at the current municipal parking lot on Elm Street, east of New York Avenue, or one between New and Green Streets, north of West Carver Street.

More details on the proposed parking structure:

• The Town is looking to enter a public-private partnership with a private operator to own and operate a municipal parking lot in the Village.
• The proposed lot does not have to be a parking structure: it could be a garage or a mixed-use building that could include retail or residential uses.
• The developer must at least double the number of parking spaces available to the public, not counting the spaces needed for the mixed use.
• The developer would be responsible for paying taxes while the Town would retain ownership of the land.

Proposals are due in Town Hall by noon on Feb. 5, 2016. They will be evaluated by a committee to see which proposal will most benefit the Town: one that has the most parking spaces, one that makes the most money and one that blends best into the Village’s character.

This request for proposal is thanks to the work of the public-private consortium, which was formed in 2012 by Supervisor Frank P. Petrone to deal with the parking shortage in Huntington Village. The consortium includes Town, the Town of Huntington Economic Development Corp., the Huntington Village Business Improvement District, the Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce and the Paramount Theater.

“This is the next logical step in what has been a long, collaborative process of identifying the factors surrounding the need for additional parking in Huntington Village and considering possible solutions,” Petrone said. “I appreciate the contributions of our partners in the Huntington Village parking consortium and look forward to continuing to work with them on this and other projects.”

The Town’s consultant Nelson Nygaard Associates conducted a parking study. Some of the firm’s recommended measures included:

• A parking structure
• Multi-space parking pay stations on Main Street and New York Avenue
• Changing the hours for which metered parking is active (10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday-Saturday)
• Designating a primary and secondary metered parking zone, with different per-hour parking rates
• Increasing to three hours in the maximum a vehicle can remain parked at a spot

The Town also conducted a pilot valet parking program in the New Street-Green Street lot and recently purchased part of the parking lot at the AG Edwards building at West Carver and New Streets for additional municipal parking.

Will the parking problem ever get solved? Tell us below.