Next Steps for Parking in Downtown Mamaroneck: Comprehensive Review or RFP for Automated Garages?

In a May 24 blog and at recent Board of Trustee Village of Mamaroneck Mayor Norm Rosenblum has advocated for the creation of additional parking spaces in the village’s downtown business district.

I agree with the Mayor’s suggestion that “it is time for the village to review the demand for parking”.  However, I believe that the review should encompass not just the supply and demand for parking in the downtown business district. The review should also consider alternative solutions besides building new parking facilities, and it should consider the implications and repercussions on the village of building new parking facilities and the alternatives.

Let me suggest some of the questions that need to be addressed in a comprehensive review:

• How great is the need for additional parking spaces and what are the alternative ways to address this need?
• What will be the impact of adding parking spaces in the downtown business district? Will it simply mean more restaurants will move into the district and create the need for additional parking?  In other words, will we end up in the same place, with a parking shortage during evening hours, but with a built-up and busier downtown district?
• What are the additional resources and spending required to meet the demand from a busier, built-up downtown district for police, sanitation and other services? What are the additional revenues that the Village will realize as a result of a busier downtown district? For that matter, what are the additional revenues that the village currently realizes from the increased activity in the downtown district to date?
• What will be the impact on downtown businesses that now largely cater to local residents during daytime hours? Will they be priced out by new restaurants so that we end up with a downtown that is largely devoted to visitors rather than having a mix of shops and services catering to local residents along with services for visitors?
• If we are to build new parking facilities, would they require changes in land use restrictions and will they change the feel and look of the downtown?
• If we are to build new parking facilities, who would own and manage the facilities and what will be the benefits, costs and risks to the village under alternative ownership and management arrangements? If we are to build new parking structures using automated parking technology that is still relatively untested, as advocated by the Mayor, who will assume the risks of poor performance and maintenance?

At heart, the village is a nice place to live as well as a nice place to visit. We should not rush ahead to approve new parking structures without fully understanding the alternatives and without fully understanding the implications for our village. Let us not turn our village into a busier destination, that perhaps even becomes a nicer place to visit, but does so at the expense of making it a less nice place to live. By all means, let us proceed with a review, but let’s make it a comprehensive and transparent review of the options and implications, and not simply a narrow review of where to add parking spaces.