Residents Vote to Approve Pike Street Parking Lot

Local residents voted to approved the sale of the Pike Street parking lot to the Town of Southold on Tuesday with 95 votes for and 7 votes against.

“The key reason people wanted to see it remain a parking lot is because of the pressing need for parking given the ever increasing vibrancy of Love Lane and Pike Street,” Supervisor Scott Russell said. “Also, as a hamlet business zoned property, it could have been fully developed with new business. This would have put even more pressure on parking demands while removing parking inventory.”

The Town will be purchasing the 0.75 acre lot located on 630 Pike Street in Mattituck from the Mattituck Park District for a total of $230,000.

The board authorized issuing bond anticipation notes for $250,000 and the additional $20,000 will cover the “soft” costs typical of a real estate transaction such as a survey, etc., according to Russell.

Now that voters have approved the sale, the Town will be issuing the bond anticipation notes and can sign the contract of sale once the funds are in place.

According to Russell, the contract is going through minor revisions but the final draft will be completed shortly.

Once the contract is signed, Southold will exercise its due diligence and order the survey, a title search, etc.

Russell hopes to close within 30 to 45 days of the signing of the contract and will be having the Town’s Engineer develop a schematic to calculate the number of parking spaces possible and a layout for the painting of stripes.

“I think both sides are committed to executing the sale as quickly as possible,” he said. “It is my hope that the closing take place by the early Fall.”

The plan for the Town Board to purchase the parking lot began in April after residents expressed concerns that the popular parking lot could be sold or closed, according to a report in SoutholdLocal.

In May, a special town board meeting was held to pass a resolution in order to authorize the acquisition of the lot at a maximum cost of $250,000, according to the report.

Last month, a bill was passed to authorize the Mattituck Park District to discontinue to use of the land as parkland and sell it, according to a report in SoutholdLocal.

The Town Board then voted unanimously to approve a resolution allowing Russell to execute the contract of sale at a previous town board meeting, according to the report.

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