In Rockville Centre, parking still irks Broadway residents

The longstanding issue of parking around schools in the village has been rekindled in recent months, as residents of Broadway, between Lakeview Avenue and Judson Place, are requesting that parking restrictions be added on their block.

At the June 4 Board of Trustees meeting, a number of residents raised three issues — parking, speeding on Broadway and overcrowding by patients from a doctors’ office at the corner of Lakeview and Broadway.

According to Village Administrator Keith Spadaro, the speeding — mostly by drivers trying to bypass a traffic light as they head east, into the village — has been taken care of. “We have officers enforcing speeding regulations on that block,” Spadaro said. “I would say it’s getting special attention right now.”

The doctors, Nicholas Halper and his two sons, Brett and Todd, have an office at 149 Lakeview Ave. According to Spadaro, the office is in violation of a village regulation that limits a doctor’s office in a residential area to a single doctor. Halper received a summons, and after discussions with village officials, he reportedly has decided to relocate to a commercial area in the village.

Still a concern for the residents, however, is the parking on the street by teachers and staff of the nearby Watson Elementary School. “The school situation is ridiculous,” said Guy Lawrence, a resident of the block who spoke at the board meeting. “There’s just too many employees.” He told trustees that the commuter-parking situation is “not our problem. That’s your problem.”

Lawrence suggested that more teachers could park at the Morgan Days parking lot, behind Old Mill Court, which he described as a couple of blocks farther down the street, but Spadaro responded that forcing teachers to walk an extra third of a mile was neither fair nor feasible. “The teachers have been parking there for many years,” Spadaro said the day after the meeting. “We’re looking at … other areas to park, but the reality is that the school was there when 90 percent of them bought their houses. I don’t believe you’d want someone parking behind Old Mill Court because it’s a long distance.”

Lawrence also pointed out that other village schools have parking restrictions similar to those that Broadway residents are requesting. Police Commissioner Charles Gennario denied that claim, saying that police receive the same parking complaints from residents who live near the Hewitt and Riverside elementary schools.

In an attempt to find a solution to the parking problems, Gennario distributed a questionnaire asking residents of Broadway, Judson Place and Lakeside Drive how they would feel about various options, like restrictive signage in front of houses. “My feeling is that anything I do there will have a negative impact on other residents,” he said. “I realize they aren’t happy, but I can’t just tell the teachers that they can’t park there.”

“The number of cars increased in the early 1990s, but the staff of the schools since then has pretty much been the same,” said Superintendent Dr. William Johnson. “This is not new. Watson is no different from other elementary schools, and restrictions for parking would create problems. It’s a bigger problem than one street.”