[POLL] Should Overnight On-Street Parking Be Legal in White Plains?

What Plains has made several recent strides in attempting to make parking easier for its residents and visitors. However, some say that the measures—which include adding more spaces, making it more convenient to pay and creating resident permits—don’t go far enough.

As the White Plains Common Council approved Mayor Tom Roach’s proposal for a resident’s parking permit last week—some residents are questioning the City’s parking policies, including the a ban on overnight on-street parking. 

White Plains Parking Upgrades

“This new permit is designed to give our residents more affordable parking options within their own city,” said Roach, in the press release. “By significantly reducing the price of parking, we are encouraging residents to patronize the businesses, restaurants and theaters in our downtown. We believe this will have a positive impact on our local economy as well.”

Click for details on the permit. According to the press release, the permits will allow the City to alleviate congestion in busy garages, and bring parking to the City’s underutilized garages.

The City also recently added a new parking lot on East Post Road where the former Bengal Tiger Restaurant stood before a fire destroyed it and surrounding stores last year. Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona argued that the City should keep this area as temporary parking, as was intended. She says there is adequate parking in the area, and are better uses for the plot. She would like to see the City conduct a comprehensive report of the City's parking facilities. 

In July, the City introduced pay-by-phone parking—which allows customers to add time to their space by paying over the phone and sends text message notifications when time is running out. Multi-space meters were also added to the , the and the. Click  to read that full story.  

"We are focused on continuing to roll out parking improvements throughout the City,” said Roach, in a press release.

The Overnight On-Street Parking Ban

However, for residents like Colleen Kirk of Stewart Avenue their problem isn’t cheaper parking or more convenient ways to pay for parking, but overnight parking. On-street parking is prohibited in White Plains from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.

The 10-year White Plains residents says she had to leave her first apartment in White Plains after the private parking lot, where she had a space across the street from Eastview Middle School, was sold by the owner. The 34-year-old says she is lucky that her current apartment comes with one parking space. However, she says she has spent more than $2,000 in parking tickets from family and friends who stay the night, including her significant other.

She has recently created the White Plains Residents for Overnight Parking Facebook page, which currently has more than 100 likes, to promote overnight on-street parking in White Plains and encourage residents to write to the mayor regarding the issue.

“There is and has always been a shortage of parking at apartment buildings and multi-family residences,” said Ivica Rukavina, on the Facebook page. “ Being ticketed for parking in front of your home should stop.”

The page states that parking should be free for residents, and that the current parking laws only seek to create revenue for the City. According to The White Plains Examiner, parking department revenues account for $21.4 million, or 14.7 percent, of the City’s 2011-2012 budget— the department’s costs are $11.2 million, and the department brings in more than $10 million to the City. Read their story here.

Kirk says that the City's parking garages are too far from many apartment buildings and multifamily homes in White Plains, where shes says there is more of a need for on-street overnight parking. 

Click here for information on the City’s parking options. 

Senior Advisor to the Mayor Karen Pasquale said public safety is the primary reason for the overnight on-street parking ban, which the council first enacted in 1947 with the addition of section 208 to the Traffic Ordinance.

Public safety reasons include:

• easier detection of abandoned and stolen vehicles
• a reduction in the opportunity for criminals to lurk behind parked vehicles
• easier for officers to see buildings, alleys, pedestrians, etc while on patrol
• reduces fear of crime for pedestrians by providing a more open environment at night
• helps to enforce zoning ordinances and identify overcrowded housing
• makes parked occupied vehicles that may have occupants engaged in narcotics use, burglaries or larcenies more noticeable
• discourages disabled vehicles from being repaired on the street or left on the street
• discourages groups from hanging out in or near parked cars who might make noise late at night
• creates a record of parked vehicles that may help to solve crimes; makes it more difficult for predators to park on the street looking for victims without being observed
• reduces general clutter and improves the appearance of the city
• makes emergency vehicle access and parking easier improving response times
• makes it easier for ambulance personnel to maneuver stretchers and helps to keep hydrants and standpipe access clear—particularly important if fire strikes at night when people are sleeping

“It is more dangerous to ask people to walk half a mile a day from their cars to their homes then to let them park on the streets in front of their building,” said Kirk. “I would ask to see the empirical data that shows that these items decreased when the law was enforced.”

 According to Pasquale, public works benefits include:

• Easier plowing of snow in winter, so snow can be cleared from curb to curb—something that also holds true with respect to street cleaning
• Garbage pick-up is done faster and more efficiently because the trash set out the night before is left at the curb, and not between parked cars (this will be especially helpful now that the City's new side loading refuse pick-up pilot is commencing)
• In that most people do not move a vehicle out onto the street at 6 a.m., the streets remain clear longer for these various operations to take place

Kirks argues that the use of alternate side parking can alleviate public works issues.

"What's wrong with street parking on side streets, try it for a year and see how it goes," suggested David Furcayg, on the White Plains Residents for Overnight Parking Facebook page. "If you must, make an alternate side of the streets program so you can still clean it—or once a week you can't park on certain streets overnight."

According to Pasquale, the City's Planning Board rejected a proposal in 2002 that would initiate a one-year trial for overnight on-street parking near Old Mamaroneck Road.

“The common council, at the time, did not pursue the matter further,” said Pasquale.

Kirk says she would like to see residents be able to regularly call in their cars that are parked overnight in the street, which would avoid them or their guests from being ticketed. She says she would even be willing to pay for a residential overnight on-street parking permit.

However, Pasquale says that on-street parking cannot be restricted to residents for legal reasons, as the streets are a public right-of-way.

Resident Charles Morgan spoke to the council before its Dec. 5 meeting and expressed concerns about the lack of overnight parking from fellow residents.

While some residents passionately advocate for overnight on street parking, other groups protest the notion and promote current enforcement of the City's parking ordinance. Mary Merenda, president of the Fisher Hill Association (FHA), says the Fisher Hill neighborhood has been working with the City for years to make sure vehicles, taxi's and trucks that illegally park overnight on its streets are ticketed.

“This is a closed-in residential neighborhood and we are concerned with illegal housing which results in cars and commercial vehicles that overflow driveways and block sidewalks and neighbor's driveways,” said Merenda. “We believe that it is safer for homes to be in full view of patrolling police vehicles. Overnight parking also hinders plowing and removal of snow during the winter. I believe I speak for the FHA in opposing on-street overnight parking in residential neighborhoods.”

Merenda says she acknowledges that the City’s parking restrictions can negatively affect those who live in apartments that lack parking for residents.

“Perhaps those residents and City personnel could work together to come up with a plan to address the problem,” said Merenda.

President Frances Jones says the Rocky Dell/Reynal Park neighborhood association also opposes overnight on street parking in White Plains. 

Terence Guerriere president of the Gedney Association, a group that advocates for the Gedney Farms neighborhood, said the Gedney Association hasn’t taken a stance on overnight on-street parking.

What do you think? 

• Do you think on-street parking should be legal in White Plains? Why or why not?
• How has parking in the City affected your life?
• Should parking be improved in White Plains? If not, why? If so, how can parking be improved?

Like us on  Facebook  (facebook.com/WhitePlainsPatch) and follow us on  Twitter (twitter.com/WhtPlainsPatch)