SPENCERPORT – As of now, the Village of Spencerport is not enforcing new, two-hour parking limits in the downtown business district as leaders and business owners work to come up with solutions to the issue of parking space in the village.
Village Board members – who in December voted to extend two-hour limits to the Village parking lot east of Church Street and north of West Avenue – decided during their regular meeting January 8 to hold off on enforcement and issuing tickets with a $25 fine for vehicles in violation.
The village had planned to enforce all two-hour parking limits in the village beginning January 1, 2014.
The decision to hold off on enforcement came in response to several merchants and business owners who attended the January 8 meeting and voiced concerns during the Privilege of the Floor, over the two hour limits, particularly those most recently approved.
Ginny Swarthout, owner of The Unique Shop, explained that there are four beauty salons between West Avenue and the canal bridge and those customers need well beyond the two-hour limit to obtain many services.
“We have to find the right solution,” Swarthout told board members. She noted that she had been part of a village committee on parking more than 15 years ago when initial two-hour parking limits on Union Street were imposed.
“The problem has not gone away,” she said, and added that she worries the parking limits will detour customers from coming to the village.
We want to make Spencerport a destination, Swarthout explained. “We are concerned that more (parking areas) will be designated (for a two-hour limit) in the future. Let us work with you and come up with solutions agreeable to all – we need to look at the forest and not the trees.”
John Soldi, owner of Bella Salon & Spa, told board members much of his clientele comes to Spencerport from out of town and that his customers enjoy the quaint village atmosphere and patronize other businesses while here.
“I don’t want to lose business over this,” Soldi said of the parking limits. “This is not a good decision. You’re taking business out of this village.”
Other merchants suggested the possibility of a parking garage, extending parking limits to four hours or issuing “permits” to business owners to place in their vehicle or vehicles of customers, allowing them to park in spaces for longer than two hours.
Village Board members explained the additional limits and planned enforcement were put in place as a response to merchants’ concerns regarding the lack of parking in the village.
“We are certainly willing to work with you, we are willing to listen,” Trustee Glenn Granger said, and reiterated that the new restrictions were an attempt to meet merchants’ concerns.
Trustee Gary Penders said that although the two-hour parking limit signs would have to remain in place, “as of now we are not enforcing.”
Both merchants and Village Board members expressed ongoing frustration over municipal parking spaces utilized by Post Office employees – whose own lot can be nearly empty when mail trucks are out.
Board members and Mayor Joyce Lobene discussed inviting the postmaster and representatives of village merchants to an upcoming Village Board workshop to discuss the issue.
Mayor Lobene said she would also contact Senator Chuck Schumer, if that became necessary.
