Chamber to Survey Main Street Biz Owners On Parking Problems

If you have ever tried parking on Main Street in Kings Park, you may have found yourself baffled by parking time limits, which can run 15 minutes on some parts and a half-hour on others.

The Kings Park Chamber of Commerce is aiming to fix that and recently reached out to the town board to devise a solution.

“These limits were set up years ago by the town and the state,” said town councilman Robert Creighton. “Changes have been made, but they have not been very satisfactory to the merchants.”

Creighton got together with chamber members Larry Flynn of Flynn Realty and owner Jim Pavese to form a committee and meet with the state to work towards a solution.

“We had a meeting with the state,” said Charlie Garner, president of the chamber. “The department of tranportation's position on parking time limits is that it is up to the town to convey to them the interests of the community.”

To facilitate that, Gardner, Pavese and Flynn are surveying business owners on Main Street to gain insight on what they would like to see in terms of parking limits.

“We will see if we can gauge the opinion of the community and of Main Street businesses and then forward to the town,” said Gardner.

Pavese said he would like to see a more sensible approach to the rules.

"I would like to see a common sense application of the parking rules across the board in our downtown area. If you look at it now it makes no sense and it needs to be addressed to be fair and consistent for everyone," said Pavese.

The results of the survey will be brought to Creighton, who will then forward them to the New York State Department of Transportation, who he says is open to making changes brought forth by the town.

“The committee will get input on where they want the signs, what time limit they want to put on the signs and will give me that list. I will go to the DOT and the dot has said if they will implement it they will do it.”

Gardner said the surveys should be done by the end of June.

“We are gong to get as much information as we can and get it to the town to try and get some common sense rules in place,” he said.

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