City residents concerned over proposed Grace Avenue parking restrictions

May 6—PLATTSBURGH — Grace Avenue residents are displeased with a recent City of Plattsburgh traffic order that looks to prohibit parking on the eastern side of their street.

In a letter sent to Mayor Chris Rosenquest and the Common Council May 3, residents shared that the city's desire to create this restriction on their residential street has "caused significant concerns of inconvenience and frustration for our community."

"The lack of consultation with residents and transparency in the decision-making process has only compounded our frustration," the letter, signed from "Concerned Citizens of Grace Avenue," said.

"Furthermore, we are concerned about the lack of justification provided for this parking restriction. Without clear evidence or reasoning behind the decision, it feels arbitrary and unjustified. We have not been presented with any data or information indicating that parking on the east side of the street poses a significant problem or safety hazard to warrant such drastic action."

The concerned letter stems from the city's establishment of three traffic zone designation orders at a meeting March 7.

Of the orders, one included establishing a "No Parking Any Time" zone along the eastern side of Grace Avenue from Woodland Drive to Cornelia Street. The city made the same designation for the eastern side of Draper Avenue as well.

In the reasoning for both changed traffic zones, the city wrote "This designation is to mitigate the funneling of passenger vehicle traffic, and access issues that larger service trucks (e.g. plows and refuse trucks) encounter driving along the street when cars are parked on both sides of the street."

MEETING

On Monday afternoon, several residents met with Mayor Rosenquest, Councilor Jennifer Tallon, who represents the Ward 4 district where Grace Avenue is located, and city staff that included Department of Public Works Superintendent Mike Bessette; DPW Assistant Superintendent Andrew Durrin; Fire Chief Scott Lawliss; and Senior Planner Elisha Bartlett to share their concerns about the proposed parking restriction for their street.

A common concern among the residents at the meeting on their street was how and why, after 75 years of Grace Avenue having parking on both sides of the street, did the city come to the conclusion that this change needed to be done now.

Bartlett said there was an incident this past winter where a city garbage truck got stuck between parked cars on either side of the street. She said the driver tried to get the homeowners to come out and move their cars but was unsuccessful.

"The truck couldn't move forward because there was a car in front of them and they couldn't reverse and go backwards," Bartlett said.

She called the garbage truck incident the "most egregious" event that prompted the desire for a parking restriction. Bartlett was pressed by residents for other documented situations that have impacted services on Grace Avenue, but she couldn't provide any at that point.

Many residents then said the 75-year history there has shown there has never been a problem with firetrucks, ambulances or police cruisers driving through there.

SAFETY ISSUES

Bartlett said the width of the street from curb to curb is also under 36 feet, which is the state standard of what it should be when there is parallel parking on both sides, and the possibility is there that future issues with emergency vehicles could arise.

"What we're hoping to do is find where the sweet spot is — where the balance is — because there are safety issues," she said.

"If we have parallel parking on both sides, if an emergency vehicle can't get to a situation, and then there's service issues with efficiency and public employees trying to get their jobs done, and if they can't get through the road roadway, then that's an issue with services. But, perhaps, there are other mechanisms we can look at for traffic calming."

She was asked if keeping Grace Avenue as is was still an option.

Bartlett said it was, but now that they know it does not meet the width requirements of New York State and the Federal Highway Transportation, it's not the "preferred" option.

SPEEDING

Many residents acknowledged the narrowness of the road due to the parking on both sides, but pointed out that it helps to mitigate speeding and subsequently protect the neighborhood children who may be outside playing.

Rosenquest said if the primary concern is to mitigate speeding, there may be more ways of addressing that.

Mary Alldred, a resident of Grace Avenue for seven years, wanted to know what that would look like without losing 50% of their parking.

Bartlett said it could look like turning the street into a one-way — though many already shared their disapproval with that — or installing speed bumps. However, those "wreak havoc" on the city's service vehicles, she said. Other options could be adding crosswalks or bump outs.

With all this feedback, the city now plans to consider all options and revisit the topic of a potential parking restriction with residents at a later date.

Bartlett, acknowledging their previous concerns about not being involved in the decision making process, said the community will be included in the conversations about Grace Avenue moving forward.

"Typically, we don't have community or neighborhood meetings for this," Rosenquest also said.

"It's something that we can learn from, certainly."

Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: CarlySNewton