Island Park changes parking in village

At its meeting on June 21, the Island Park Village Board of Trustees approved three new local laws that changed some of the parking restrictions on Railroad Place and Long Beach Road and at the North Commuter Parking Field.

The change on Railroad Place, near Pop’s Seafood Shack and Grill, push parking farther from the corners at the intersection with Austin Boulevard to increase access for emergency vehicles. “They’re two sharp, 90-degree turns,” said Mayor James Ruzicka, “and our emergency vehicles can’t get down there if people are parking on both sides of the street.”

The second change was to the North Commuter Parking Field, behind the former American Legion building on Nassau Lane. That part of the lot is divided between commuter parking and merchant parking, but the meters there have never worked well, Ruzicka said.

“So instead of trying to put money into something that’s not really working, [we decided to] make it permit parking,” he said. “It will also open up any of these places where their employees need parking. They can come down, and for $50 a year, get a permit and park back in there and walk over to their businesses.”

The biggest change the village made was increasing the time allowed for parking on Long Beach Road from one to two hours. The change came at the behest of the Chamber of Commerce, which wrote to the village last month after the village began strictly enforcing the one-hour parking limit.

“When we started to enforce it, we got a lot of grief — and rightfully so,” Ruzicka said. “Some people were concerned because they’d go into the nail salon or the beauty parlor and take more than an hour and they’d get a ticket.”

Glenn Ingolia, the Chamber president, brought the issue to the attention of the village board at its meeting in May. Ruzicka told him that the chamber should send its suggestions on how to improve the parking regulations to the village.

In addition to suggesting an increase in the parking limit from one to two hours, the Chamber also recommended reducing the price of the Merchant Parking Permit from $50 to $25. The village did not implement that suggestion.

Ruzicka said that the main issue on Long Beach Road was that there are many businesses that rely on customers being able to get in and out quickly, but many employees of other businesses often parked on the street all day, reducing the number of spots available to customers. Enforcing the parking limit ensures that parkers won’t linger all day and more customers will find places to park.

“So it’s a double-edged sword, so to speak,” said Ruzicka. “You don’t want to take away from parking for employees, but at the same time you want people to be able to park and use the shops.”