Village of Pelham board reviews parking transition plan as decks two and three approach closure
Parking deck two, located at Third Street and Fourth Avenue, will be decommissioned because it is nearing structural failure.
Mayor Chance Mullen held a presentation Feb. 8 on the Village of Pelham’s parking transition plan at a board of trustees meeting, describing a process that will require residents, merchants and commuters to adapt to the loss of parking spaces.
The board discussed the plan for the next several months because parking deck two, located at Third Street and Fourth Avenue, will be decommissioned because it is nearing structural failure. According to Mullen, repairing the lot would cost $3.1 million. Additionally, parking deck three at Sixth Avenue and Third Street will be repurposed for the construction of the village’s new municipal center, further cutting into parking options downtown, said Mullen.
The proposed Pelham House apartment project was described as being at the center of efforts to create additional parking. The five-story rental building, which is expected to be finished in late 2023 to early 2024, will provide 60 public parking spaces along with another 157 reserved for tenants of the building.
Under a deal the village cut with developer Pelham House LLC, the company is building the rental complex as well as the new municipal center to house village hall and the police and fire stations. The center would, in part, use village-owned land and be entirely funded by Pelham House.
The apartment building’s plans are on the agenda for consideration by the planning board on Tuesday and the architectural review board on Wednesday.
Before the new parking spots are created with the construction of Pelham House, the village board plans to suspend commuter parking permits in all lots temporarily.
“We’re prioritizing function over revenue,” said Mullen. “We want to make sure our residential permit holders have a place to park overnight, and that our merchants have a place for their employees to park during the day. We also want to make sure we have options for people who shop and dine in our downtown. All of these things are essential to a functioning downtown and a permit program that serves the best interest of our residents.”
Expanding residential on-street parking permits was also discussed, along with changing some of the other lot boundaries to create more space.
“We just wanted to land on our final plan,” Mullen said. “We want to make sure that we land on it in the spring so that we can start putting everything in place.”
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Bob Shepherd • Feb 18, 2022 at 4:28 pm
I suggest the mayor and his team carry out plenty of due diligence here on just where they expect permit holders’ vehicles to realistically park.
Further to the comment here from Dawn Vetrano, I also live on Third Avenue, between Second and Third Streets. When we had to put up with the months crazy parking of cars from the lot, a good few of the drivers paid no regard whatsoever to street safety.
Third Avenue is a thoroughfare for kids walking or being driven to the Hutch school, and also a “rat run” for vehicles coming off the Hutch and screaming through Pelham to get where ever they’re going. Not a good mix on the street for kids and the rest of our safety. Now mix in vehicles being squeezed in where ever they can yet again, vision is extremely limited for cars coming out of driveways, and there is a good chance that an accident will occur, maybe a child getting whacked. I would strongly suggest that if vehicles from the lot are expected to park in Third Avenue in the future, then make the street one way traffic. Also, as it is already a “rat run” then some form of traffic calming measure should be introduced, even if it’s temporary over the period of the extra parking, such as speed bumps for example.
LeRoy Marriott • Feb 15, 2022 at 8:03 pm
The parking space numbers do NOT add up! Currently their are NO additional spaces available for residents to park. If you just moved into Pelham or purchased a second car you CANNOT get a permit. The new proposed building takes AWAY parking spaces for current permit holders and jeopardizes their current parking spaces. On street parking will be our ONLY option. It sounds like an easy solution but how would you feel if the 24hr on street parking was in front of your house? We are talking about parking, let’s not forget about the impact it’s going to have on our already overloaded elementary schools!!
Dawn Vetrano • Feb 18, 2022 at 10:40 am
We had overnight parking on Third Avenue for over a month when the Village was fixing the parking lot on Fourth Ave and Third Street. It was inconvenient and unsettling. It changes the whole character of the neighborhood to have cars parked for days on end and overnight. Not to mention overnight parking is in violation of the village parking laws. If the village proceeds with its plans as stated, I suggest that the village repave Second Avenue and Second Street at the very least. Its been years since a decent resurfacing job has been done.