City Council holds public hearing on School Street parking

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The City of Glen Cove held the first of two public hearings on Feb.23 on potential changes that could make a difference for small business and medical practice owners along School Street, as well as their clients and customers.

“We’re looking to help out some of the downtown businesses by moving one or two handicap spots from the east side of School Street to the west side, which makes more sense because the west side has more doctors’ offices,” said City of Glen Cove Mayor Tim Tenke. “The east side has the businesses where they have people who pickup and leave relatively quickly.”

Moving the handicap parking spots is something the Glen Cove Downtown Business Improvement District and local small businesses support, he said.

“We hear them and we’re trying to help them out,” Tenke said. “We’re looking to implement those changes downtown.”

The businesses along the east side of School Street, Patricia Holman, executive director of the Glen Cove Downtown BID, said, are often have quick transactions with their customers, because many are involved in take-out amid the pandemic, making ample parking in front of the businesses, including the Downtown Café and Morris Café, an integral part of doing business.

The City of Glen Cove Community Development Agency, in collaboration with a city grant from Empire State Development, is administering funds toward investigating vehicular and pedestrian access from School Street into the Brewster Street Garage.

“I’m pretty excited about this process because the way the downtown is right now, you can’t turn into any of the garages,” said Councilwoman Danielle Fugazy Scagliola. “If you can’t find a [street] parking spot, you can’t get into the garage and then people circle out and leave.”

And when people leave, Fugazy Scagliola said, the businesses there can suffer.

The second of two public hearings on the matter will be held at the next City Council meeting on March 9.

The Glen Cove City Council also approved that a separate study and services be performed by LiRo Engineers in an effort to reconfigure some parking spots and eliminate bump outs, which would increase parking spots on School Street, Tenke said. “That is something [the Department of Public Works] was actually recommending,” he said, “and we were looking at to try to increase parking on School Street,” Tenke said.

The LiRo Engineers project, estimated at roughly $166,000, will also include services associated with reconstruction, such as survey, design and bid phase services, on Beverly Street, Browne Street, Colonial Gate, Clement Street, High Ave, Elridge Place, Petite Place, Prospect Avenue, Rellim Drive, Northfield Road, Leonard Street and Whitney Circle.