No. Castle Begins Rec Center Parking Expansion to Ease Armonk Crunch
Work to expand and reconstruct the Hergenhan Recreation Center parking lots was scheduled to begin this week, a project that will increase parking for the facility as well as for visitors to downtown Armonk.
North Castle Town Administrator Joan Goldberg said preliminary work, including erosion control methods and actual groundbreaking, was due to start on Monday at the site located at 40 Maple Ave. It is tentatively slated to wrap up by Dec. 20, she said.
The bid for the project was awarded in September to Tony Casale, Inc. of Yonkers for $563,753. The cost to the town will be reduced by $250,000 as a result of a Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) grant that had previously been obtained.
Expansion of the parking lot behind the recreation center, referred to by town officials as the upper lot, will more than double the capacity from the current 21-space limit to 46 spaces, said Matt Trainor, North Castle’s superintendent of Recreation & Parks. That will be accomplished by paving over the grassy area beyond where the existing parking is now, he said.
A second part of the project will pave over the gravel area that’s used for additional parking at the facility on the side of the building closest to Wampus Brook Park, Trainor said. After the paving and striping, it is expected there will be 22 defined spaces, roughly what the gravel lot currently holds, he said.
The parking lot expansion will not only serve the recreation center but will be available as a municipal lot for the general public, Trainor said. Since the development of Armonk Square and the addition of several business in downtown Armonk, town officials have sought to increase the number of spaces for vehicles within walking distance of Main Street.
Along with the additional parking at Hergenhan, Goldberg said the town will soon be striping another 58 spaces along Old Route 22 as a result of that thoroughfare’s streetscape project.
Town officials have also discussed more parking could be provided on Kent Place, but Goldberg said the Town Board is likely to monitor how the addition of more than 80 new spaces at the recreation center and on-street parking at Old Route 22 operates before embarking on any additional projects.
“Let’s see what happens with the additional parking behind Hergenhan and the parking spaces on Old Route 22,” Goldberg said. “If we need more parking, we could add more spaces.”
Preliminary estimates to add parking on Kent Place had run about $400,000, she said.
At this week’s Town Board meeting, officials are also scheduled to hold a public hearing and possibly adopt a local law regarding parking restrictions in areas of town, including on Old Route 22.
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