After several iterations, and dozens of complaints, a newly amended residential parking system will continue to be scrutinized by village officials.
Following several amendments, the newest system, which went into effect this month, will encompass the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and only Monday through Friday, effectively overwriting the previous 24-hour iteration.
According to Assistant Village Manger Daniel Sarnoff, though the program, which has been under discussion for several months, and was first implemented in March, was originally meant to alleviate congested parking conditions in areas surrounding the Metro-North train station, but has instead unintentionally caused hardships for many residents.
“The problem we’re trying to solve is having a system that meets our objective, but is flexible enough to allow those scenarios where people need visitor parking and things like that,” Sarnoff said.
An original version of the village’s program required parking permits for various neighborhoods that surround the train station, including sections of Mamaroneck Avenue and Fenimore Road, and stipulated permit parking hours would last from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
However, after parking congestion continued despite the new regulations, mandatory permit parking in those neighborhoods was expanded to 24 hours, seven days a week.
Instead of quelling the problem, however, what ensued as a result of the amended system was discontent.
“They put [the system] in place, but they didn’t do enough research into what the different areas of Mamaroneck needed,” said Maria DeRose, the chairwoman of the village’s Ad Hoc Parking Committee who is also running for village trustee as a Republican.
According to a memo from village administrators to the Board of Trustees, on top of various complaints from residents, the 24-hour stipulation was viewed as too onerous on residents entertaining guests, as well as those with home health aides that required their visitors to park on the street.
Now, after another amendment, the current system mandates permit parking between the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday and does not allow for the issuance of visitor passes.
These new mandates will also continue to be scrutinized and tinkered with accordingly if problems persist, according to Village Manger Richard Slingerland.
“After a few weeks have passed we’ll do another revaluation,” he said.
According to Slingerland, major obstacles for the current system include allowing parking for visitors to residences in the neighborhoods encompassed in the program as well as individualizing the system to make it work for different conditions in various neighborhoods.
“We have different needs for different neighborhoods,” Slingerland said. “Washingtonville is very densely populated, and places like Union Avenue and Melbourne Avenue have different needs.”
Sarnoff said the village is currently working to rejigger the system in a way that makes sense for everyone, and that can also be easily implemented and digested.
“The program has to be easy to understand,” Sarnoff said. “If, as administrators, we can’t understand it, just imagine what the general public is going to think.”
A part of that process will be devising a system that works for residents’ needs in addition to ensuring that the systems have enough personnel—police patrolling the streets—to enforce the policies.
“You have to take into account the hundreds of homes which are affected,” Sarnoff said.
