Mayor defends permit parking lot plan

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

The resolution was tabled at the July 28 Common Council meeting in the face of many negative comments by the public, but Glens Falls Mayor Diana Palmer continued touting her parking lot permit fee plan in a follow-up conversation with The Chronicle the next Thursday.

Also participating were City Clerk Megan Nolin and Deputy Clerk Emily Neal.

The plan would turn the city lots on Warren Street next to St. Mary’s School, on Ridge Street next to City Hall and on Exchange Street behind Davidson’s Restaurant into permit parking only, ending the current free parking with a three-hour limit. It also involved the first floor of the Clinton Street parking garage near Elm Street.

Mayor Palmer says the plan “was a reaction to tons and tons of input that the Clerk’s office, the Mayor’s office, the Common Council had gotten — an attempt to try to help people by first creating more free parking and then helping people get off the permit waiting list and create more permits.”

She said the City increased daytime parking limits in the downtown hub from two to three hours, and eliminated time limits in most of the rest of the city, except for the continuing ban on overnight parking between 2 and 6 a.m.

The Mayor said, “The good thing about the public process is that we listen to people and then we have time to work it through.”

She said, “This was something that wasn’t even going to (be implemented) ’til October. Even if it did pass and we had an outcry, we would have amended it. We are very open to suggestions and have been every step of the way — myself, the Common Council, the staff.”

Regarding the proposed parking fees, “The Audit and Finance committee has the right to update fees,” said the mayor. “Well, and the Council has to approve it. EMS fees, cemetery fees, whatever fees. That’s part of routine business of the City. 

“What we wanted to make sure is that we weren’t pulling numbers out of nowhere. So I asked them to get comparables, and then the committee did their work.

“The plan was not to try to do a secret thing that was going to happen overnight. There were months of work involved. I just want to make sure that that’s clear. And every single person who has asked to meet with me about parking has been invited in….

“My direction was: I want to create varied permits. The rest of that is going to be a Common Council thing to bring forward, and I trust them to engage with the public. All of them are good Council members, and so I’m not concerned that they’re not going to get input.

“I’m not micromanaging the Common Council, but I have often met with council members, including Sean (Palladino, Ward 5), who’s a new council member, to tell him things that I would do as a Council member.

“But we also have Council members who are not new, who were part of some of the process. When I was a Council member, I didn’t really want the Mayor to tell me how to run my committees.”

The resolution itself was written by Mayor Palmer, City Clerk Nolin and Deputy Clerk Neal. 

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The plan is to create three permit categories for the Warren, Ridge and Exchange Street lots and on the City’s first-floor spaces in the Clinton Avenue garage — day use, evening/weekend, and 24-7.

Fees were to increase from the current $45 for three months, to a base line of $40 to $70 for one month, with weekly and some per-day permits available.

Regarding the fees: Ms. Nolin said, “I know it’s a lot, and it is not incremental, and that’s what we’re looking to do going forward, is to review fees and go forward incrementally, so this isn’t such a shock for people.
 
“But we were looking at less than $1 a day for people to park in covered parking in an assigned spot (at Clinton Avenue Garage), and that’s just unheard of.”

They noted that free unlimited parking is now available on Warren Street east of Church Street, on the north side of Hudson Avenue, and on Washington and Lawrence Streets, among other locations near but outside the downtown hub.

They said the City is working with a couple of businesses and churches that don’t need their lots every hour, potentially to open them for parking, especially during special events. 

The City is also working with the Warren County Planning Department’s GIS (Geographic Information System) service, to create a parking map that would better lay out the various options.
 
Permits, including a couple of one-day parking permits for Warren Street lot, will be available to purchase via online app, or in the Clerk’s office, they said.

The Mayor said, “The communication of the new rules is very important, and I totally understand that.
 
“This wasn’t going to take an effect until October, and the map is almost done.

“We were going to send a letter explaining to everyone, and we would have the map, and all of it would be out.”

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