FROM THE INDEPENDENT PRESS (NJN Publishing)
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
By STACEY McEVOY
MADISON--At the last two Borough Council meetings, council members tossed around ideas to assuage the parking crunch for the benefit of downtown shoppers during daytime hours, especially the lunchtime hours, by discussing tenant and merchant parking permits in the Cooke Avenue lot.
In the Cooke Avenue lot, there are 32 permit spaces not available to shoppers because of their designation.
Councilwoman Mary-Anna Holden is also concerned that merchants are using other spaces that consumers could be using.
At the Monday, Oct. 23 Borough Council meeting, Councilman John Elias lobbied to make the 32 permit spaces available to consumers between noon and 5 p.m., the crunch hours, as he described them. "Why should consumers be prohibited from parking in these spots during business hours?" he asked, noting that the spaces should be permit parking only during overnight hours. Currently, tenant and merchant permits are 24 hours.
Concerned with merchants, Councilman Robert Conley asked where should merchants go. The Elmer Street lot was named as an alternative.
In the past, Councilwoman Carmela Vitale, a real estate agent, has noted that landlords do pay taxes on their properties and need parking spaces for their tenants.
Since Councilman Elias is anxious to see the rules on merchant/tenant permit parking changed before the holiday season, Mayor Woody Kerkeslager asked if the rules could be changed this year. The answer
was not known since no one knew what the language was that came with the permits.
Councilwoman Astri Baillie suggested that the council resurrect the discussion in November, if the language allows the rules to be changed.