Roslyn Chamber of Commerce requests changes to village parking

Jessica Parks
The Roslyn Board of Trustees listens to the chambers suggestions on village parking. (Photo by Jessica Parks)

The Roslyn Chamber of Commerce approached the Board of Trustees on Tuesday night with requests to make village parking more convenient for customers. 

Steven Blank, the president of the chamber and editor and publisher of Blank Slate Media, told the board that chamber members would like another parking system to be implemented but “most importantly they would like the meters to work.”

The chamber provided a list of suggestions, which included a more modern system to pay for parking such as “pay by plate” instead of the current “pay by display” method, and the ability to pay through an app or web browser.

Glen Falcone, a member of the chamber and owner of Gatsby’s Landing, said that these practices were recommended by the village’s parking consultant.

Blank emphasized that village business owners are in competition with Amazon and malls where people don’t need to pay to park.

“Those businesses that have adapted to the easy service of Amazon are succeeding and we want to do the same thing,” he said.

The chamber also proposed that the village provide a parking lot to employees who work downtown so they are not taking parking spaces that could be used by patrons.

Trustees explained that a new village parking lot should be opened soon where the old Mobil gas station used to be on Old Northern Boulevard.

The village is waiting for Nassau County to complete an intersection upgrade before it can open the lot.

The upgrade will include pedestrian bump-outs and an additional face to the existing traffic light.

The board and the chamber agreed that parking would be free in the village from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Other issues raised by the chamber included better snow removal on sidewalks, allowing a 10-minute grace period on meters, a change in the hours that meters are used to either 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., free parking on Sundays rather than Mondays and an hour limitation for loading zones, along with a request that village parking attendants be courteous and respectful.

Village Attorney John Gibbons said the board would go through all of the chamber’s concerns with its parking consultant so they could be discussed and hopefully resolved at the next meeting on Nov. 10.

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