By Mary C. Marvin 

Apr. 22, 2015:  At a recent board of trustees public workshop, the trustees gave our parking enforcement officers the go-ahead to issue tickets for meter feeding on Pondfield Road, Park Place, and Paxton Avenue. The law against meter feeding has been in the village code for decades, but with a history of lax enforcement.  

Village code: Limited two-hour parking. During the hours of parking meter operation specified in § 290-40, the parking of vehicles for a period longer than two hours in the same metered space is hereby prohibited on Paxton Avenue, Pondfield Road, and Park Place.  [Amended 4-13-2009 by L.L. No. 1-2009]  

The decision to enforce the provision was the result of several years of constant complaints to village hall by our local merchants. They reported that the spaces in front of their establishments were not occupied by customer cars but by vehicles of employees of neighboring stores. You can guess the frustration of arriving at one's store to see the prime parking spaces out front filled for hours by fellow merchants daily feeding the meters.  

We have worked tirelessly with the chamber of commerce, which is also very aware of and sensitive to this problem, to implore employees to park in the less prime spaces or purchase a merchant parking permit or have employers require staff to park away from potential customer spaces.  

After conducting repeated surveys of Pondfield Road, Park Place, and Paxton Avenue, we sadly concluded that the power of verbal suasion was not working. A very high percentage of cars on these streets belonged to employees of our establishments. 

Though very reluctant to use a hammer, we felt we had to try a new approach to change a parking pattern that is proving to be very detrimental to lively commerce. 

I continue to take one last opportunity to implore our merchants, employees, and landlords to be vigilant in monitoring the location of staff parking and provide some incentives to change some embedded behaviors. Landlords could also help us--and their tenants--by requiring that at least some merchant parking permits be purchased as a provision of a lease. We have a limited amount of deeply discounted merchant parking available. 

As with many things, a positive result for one merchant may result in a seemingly negative impact on another. As example, the ninety-minute parking limit on Pondfield Road impacts those enjoying a leisurely lunch in the village or receiving a lengthy beauty or medical treatment. We understand this. There are, however, nearby options available for long-term visitors in our Garden Avenue lot, the Cedar Street lot, and the Kraft Avenue lot. Though perhaps not directly in front of the business of choice, these locations are literally just a minute or two away. 

Despite the fact that most of us move to the village from New York City, where to park within four to five blocks of our destination was a very positive outcome, the perception in our downtown is that if there is no parking spot on Pondfield Road, there is no parking for shopping in the village. In order for the village commerce to remain healthy, we need to change this thinking.

In concert with this new enforcement measure, we are looking at all parking permutations and will adjust as needed. As example, some meter feeding in the village's east side business district is clearly a help to some of our merchants, whereas on the west side, it would be a death knell. Our street parking costs are significantly less than the Lawrence Hospital garage rates, so Palmer Avenue would be an inexpensive annex for extended hospital visiting. 

In light of the fact that we soon plan to roll out a phone meter payment system as an added option to coin payment, we need to weigh the disparate impacts in hopes of avoiding some inherent pitfalls or unintended domino effects. To that end, we are actively canvassing area communities to see how they handle the various scenarios. 

As with any changes, the trustees and village staff will never be wedded to an initial plan if there is a better way to achieve the desired result. Such is true with the current meter-feeding prohibition. 

Our hope is that all of our stakeholders will heed this call--merchants to park farther from our retail establishments, employers and landlords to provide incentives for staff to do same, shoppers to look for a space just a little farther afield before saying there are no spaces in the village, and now that the nice weather is here, our residents to consider walking to lengthy appointments or shopping trips when purchasing non-bulky items. 

If habits modify a little, the enforcement component, which is no one's preferred method of behavioral change, won't be necessary.