Parking Overwhelms UBS Arena Community, Garage To Get Built

ELMONT, NY — The quality of life issue remains a pressing matter for residents in the vicinity of UBS Arena at Belmont Park. While the new venue is dazzling Islanders fans and concertgoers, it is a thorn in the side of the neighborhood.

One major problem is the lack of parking for the arena.

The Town of Hempstead addressed the problems on Tuesday.

"The town has been responsive in terms of trying to schedule the hearing as soon as possible," Nassau County Legislator (D- Lawrence) Carrie Solages, who represents Elmont, told Patch. "I wish we could have scheduled this before the first couple of games."

Parking restrictions within the surrounding area of the venue were discussed, and Solages said it passed unanimously, after sending a letter to Supervisor Don Clavin.

"When people move and live in Nassau County, they expect two things. Safety [and] they always expect a parking spot in front of the house," he said.

With the severe parking problems when the arena is occupied, Solages said UBS and Islanders management officials don't offer tweets warning people not to block parking lots.

"[They] have no respect for our local residents," Solages said.

The town gave its approval for building a garage to fix the backlog of drivers ascending on Elmont, but that could extend past February and have minimal impact on the Islanders' "traffic."

"Perhaps it'll be helpful for other attractions and movies, but we need it for the purposes that it was built for, mainly [to] alleviate the parking situation in this area," Solages said.

The local legislator has been railing against the UBS plan since it became clear that promises to upgrade the neighborhood were not met. Solages was not part of the official ribbon-cutting last month. He claims many aspects of the project were "rushed through."

Solages said: "When you get a governor who has a reputation of being a bully, it's no wonder that it was able to get through."

Despite the change of leadership in Albany, Solages is also not pleased with Gov. Kathy Hochul's lack of proper focus for tax-paying residents.

"[She] is acting like an interim governor and really needs to develop a plan to handle this situation," Solages said. "If we had a governor who was really hands-on and, with all due respect she's not, we would have all parties back on the same page."