Planned Austin St Loading Zones Opposed By Forest Hills Lawmakers

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS -- Two Forest Hills lawmakers want to pump the brakes on the city's plan to add more truck loading zones along Austin Street.

In a joint statement Monday, City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz and State Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi came out against the Department of Transportation's proposal to bring several part-time loading zones to the commercial strip.

According to the elected officials, the plan takes away valuable parking from local shops and confuses patrons, but the DOT claimed information the Forest Hills leaders cited doesn't reflect changes already made to accommodate both those concerns.

The DOT first posed the 60-foot loading zones along Austin Street in February as part of a five-step plan to calm the downtown roadway's traffic frenzy.

After a DOT study found delivery trucks tended to crowd the area most during mornings, the agency posed a system that would turn 36 parking spots into designated loading zones for the first half of the day and free up more space through the afternoon. It would start out at a dozen zones from 7 to 11 a.m., then go down to eight until 1 p.m. and finally to three until 3 p.m.

"At certain hours, they'll revert back to customer parking," DOT project manager Matthew Garcia said in the initial presentation. "We're trying to maintain parking but still provide (delivery drivers) space to do their business."

But Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce members were still concerned the zones would take up too much of Austin Street's scarce parking and that such a complex plan would just confuse potential patrons.

Koslowitz agreed.

“While I can appreciate DOT’s concern with traffic flow on Austin Street, the remedy cannot be at the expense of our local stores," she said Monday.

"We need only to witness the turnover in storefronts on Austin Street to realize that even a small dent in commercial activity could be fatal to many businesses."

She was backed by Hevesi, who questioned the point of adding loading zones if the businesses they're supposed to be helping don't want them.

"Unless the DOT provides some reasonable explanation, then this remains an unnecessary solution in search of a problem," the assemblyman said.

Both elected officials said they wanted to creating a dialogue for compromise between the DOT and local merchants before the agency makes the changes.

But a DOT spokeswoman told Patch the agency has already had that dialogue in a late March meeting with the Forest Hills Chamber, and its initial proposal has since been updated to reflect that.

"The loading zones cited in the press release were a part of our original proposal before we adjusted due to community feedback," the spokeswoman said.

The agency's revised plan would start with just nine loading zones - instead of the original dozen - taking up 27 parking spaces on weekday mornings from 8:30 to 11 a.m.

The zones would decrease to seven through 1 p.m. and go down to just one until 3 p.m. The DOT also agreed to add signage to to clarify the new parking and delivery regulations.

Work is slated to begin on the new loading zones in the upcoming weeks, according to the DOT.

Lead photo by Danielle Woodward/Patch