Greenport Village Trustees are backing away from a year-round ban on parking along the south side of Wiggins Street after hearing complaints from residents there.
At their work session last week, the trustees voted to amend the proposed code change for a ban from April 1 through Oct. 31.
Currently, the code prohibits parking on the south side of Wiggins between Third and Fifth streets from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Ferry traffic after Labor Day last fall and before Memorial Day this spring caused traffic congestion and sometimes prevented school buses from passing, prompting officials to move to extend the ban.
But making it year-round would be overkill, said residents, because the ferry traffic during the winter months does not justify such an imposition on Wiggins Street residents.
At their official meeting tonight, Village Trustees will hear additional public comment on the amended code change proposal before taking a vote.
Mayor George Hubbard Jr. said he’d like to have something in place before the school buses begin to roll next month.
The village’s new traffic enforcement initiative has brought a small number of complaints from some local merchants worried that it chases away customers, but overall it’s worked to bring order to what had been a chaotic situation downtown, according to officials.
As of last week, the village’s new traffic enforcement officer, who started in June, had issued 430 tickets, village administrator Paul Pallas said. The village has collected $16,000 in fines so far this year for violations such as parking in a handicapped spot without a permit, parking in front of a fire hydrant, parking in a no-parking zone or outside marked lines, and expired inspection or registration stickers.
Trustee Doug Roberts expressed concern over the number of tickets issued for expired inspections or registrations.
“This was sold to us as a way to deal with the fact that there is sort of a free-for-all happening downtown,” Roberts said. “And it’s worked. The signs and the paint have had a huge effect. Thank you for pushing it through, Mr. Mayor…But I’m concerned that— It’s not that I want people to park on the wrong side of the street or drive around in uninspected vehicles… Those are fine things to ticket, but for that to be such a significant portion of what we’re doing… That’s not what I voted for when we added this parking enforcement officer,” Roberts said.
The mayor said that’s not what the officer is targeting.
“If someone’s parked in front of a hydrant and it’s uninspected, he writes the ticket,” Hubbard said. “He’s not going around looking for uninspected vehicles. It’s people that are parking illegally and he sees an expired inspection, he writes it out. If you look at those inspection tickets, you’ll see they also get the other violations and that’s why he’s done that,” Hubbard said.
Roberts questioned why the officer is not enforcing parking time limits. “I’ve never seen chalk on any tires. We’ve only got five [tickets] for parking longer than allowed,” he said.
“That’s not what he’s looking for,” Hubbard answered. “We told the public that. If we do, we’re going to piss off a lot more business owners — if we give tickets for being there a little longer than allowed.” The mayor said he directed the officer when he first started “not to focus on the short-term parking” because “this was directed at trying to keep the rest of the parking under control,” he said.
“I didn’t want to irritate too many people while there is a learning curve,” Hubbard said.
Roberts said he thinks the village should start enforcing the time limits, especially near the IGA supermarket and pharmacy. “Those 30-minute spots are vital for our residents to get to the pharmacy and IGA. He should be at IGA every day.”
Trustee Mary Bess Phillips said she agreed that short-term parking rules should be enforced. She’s been “trying to decipher the code,” she said and put together a map of showing what time limits apply to which spots. ”I have found discrepancies,” Phillips said.
“IGA customers who have trouble parking are going elsewhere to shop or they take carts off site and leave them there,” she said. Phillips said she saw an IGA customer who couldn’t find a parking space in the lot next to the supermarket, bring a grocery cart to his car parked near Village Hall. He unloaded his groceries and left the cart there, she said.
Hubbard said he did not want to be “heavy-handed” about parking time limits the way other villages can be.
Trustee Julia Robins said she thinks “really clear signage in front of the IGA” like the signs posted at the post office, would work.
Rental code action delayed
Any action on the village’s rental code won’t come till a later date. A public hearing held on the subject remains open as the board continues to discuss possible code changes and gathers input from residents and landlords.
“We’ve all had discussions amongst ourselves and I know there have been more people in the community thinking about it,” Phillips said, asking for more time to think about the draft code amendments that have been circulated by Roberts.
The mayor agreed, saying he expects to receive a proposal from “one of the landlords” for “what they think is a good compromise.”
“We can keep the comment period open,” Hubbard said. “We’ll give it a month to come up with something we want to put out to the public. Let’s have another discussion in September.”
The village has had only three complaints about short-term rentals this summer, Hubbard said in response to a question by Phillips. They were all “partying-related,” he said.
“I’ve had many more complaints from village residents about how they can’t find a place to live,” Roberts said. His main concern with a rental code amendment is to make sure village residents have access to affordable, safe rental housing, he said. “There are already laws in place to deal with noise and nuisances,” he said.
Roberts said he is comfortable with putting off action on a comprehensive code change “so we can get something less complicated done” first.
“The rental law has prevented people from renting. My draft has more strike-throughs than additions, especially if you pull out the cap stuff,” he said, referring to an overall limit on the number of short-term rentals that is part of his initial draft.
A higher fee to cover enforcement and the requirement for a walk-through inspection should be acted on, Roberts said. “And the short-term landlords say they’re fine with that.”
The village code should not “scare someone away from buying a home and renting it to a village resident,” Roberts said. “Our rental permit law right now really isn’t working. I don’t think we’ve improved the status of rental living in the village. If we just throw the short-term rentals into a law I don’t think is working, it doesn’t make it better. We should do something to make it more efficient and effective.”
