Mt. Pleasant Mulls Eliminating Nonresident Train Parking Passes
Faced with a shortage of parking spaces at the Hawthorne and Valhalla Metro-North station lots, Mount Pleasant officials favor a plan to end nonresident annual parking passes and establish a fund to maintain the lots.
Town Clerk Patricia June Scova, who proposed changes last week, said a lack of spaces in the parking lots have become commonplace. To free up space, annual parking passes should be eliminated for those living outside the town, she said.
“Nonresidents are generally people from Yorktown, North Castle, Ossining, (and) Silver Lake,” Scova stated in an Oct. 6 letter to the town board. “Some come because there is no train service from their area or because it is cheaper.”
By ending sales to nonresidents, about 40 spaces would be freed up, Scova stated. The three lots at the Hawthorne station and one at the Valhalla station contain 678 parking spaces.
Scova is also asking the board to raise the cost of the annual resident parking permits by $15 to $250 and student permits by $25 to $100. The extra revenue would go toward a fund to maintain the lots. If the increase was imposed, an additional $125,000 would be raised next year to maintain the lots.
“The parking lots are in very poor condition,” she said.
The current annual rates for nonresident passes are $600.
The cost of one-week parking passes is $20 for residents and $45 for nonresidents. Daily passes for seniors are $5. The cost to replace lost passes are $25 each. No price changes are proposed for the one-week, senior or student passes.
Scova said she was seeking the fee increases effective Jan. 1.
As of Oct. 6, 988 passes have been sold this year, generating $245,510 in revenue, she noted in her letter.
Currently, the town highway department clears the lots during snowstorms. It also performs other maintenance work, but Scova said the department should not be responsible for that.
“They are only responsible for the highway system in town,” Scova said.
“We could use one of the private contractors (the) highway (department) uses now or go out to bid.”
Scova said Superintendent of Highways Peter Sciliano spends about $15,500 on each lot per year from his department’s budget, which does not get reimbursed.
Pleasantville created a similar parking fund for its lots in 2009, she said.
Though town board members did not make a firm commitment to the town clerk’s proposals, they expressed support for her concepts. Councilman Mark Rubeo said he agreed with the idea of creating a fund to pay for parking lot maintenance costs and would consider raising the costs of the annual parking passes. Users of the train station lots, not the town as a whole, should be paying for lot maintenance, he said.
Councilman Denis McCarthy said he also felt a parking lot maintenance fund was needed.
The board supported Scova’s call to end nonresident annual parking passes.
Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi said discussion would continue on the town clerk’s proposals in November.
