Steps Taken to Alleviate Parking Woes

Borough Administrator Robert Falzarano said Tuesday that some of the rules and regulations for the parking permits at the Chatham Train Station were not clearly outlined, including on some older permits themselves.

Borough resident Caitlin Boyle brought the permit to the Borough Council meeting that she paid for three years ago after spending one year on the waiting list. She showed the council and Falzarano the back of the permit, where it states that the parking permit is only valid in the lot indicated on the front, and then the two letters "RR" on the front of her permit, indicating the railroad parking lot.

"We were told we couldn't park anywhere else," Boyle said. "It said it in the application and it said it on the back of the permit."

Falzarano brought in a list of the parking permit rules, which are sent to the homes of those with permits along with their renewals once a year after the council approves the resolution for parking permits. He said that he's since realized some "inadvertently omitted" language that was present in the resolution but missing from the list of rules sent to borough residents.

The resolution states that "permits are valid only for the lot applied for and for spaces designated as Permit Parking except for lots 1 and 2 [Railroad Parking] permits." This language indicates that those people with railroad parking permits can park in overflow lots at Center Street East, Center Street West and Bowers Lane if there is no parking in the railroad lot.

The list of rules residents received did not include the phrase "except for lots 1 and 2 [Railroad Parking] permits."

Boyle has received three tickets for parking illegally in the railroad parking lot. The spot she parked in was converted into a permit parking space on Friday when the borough put in new stripping and added eight new spaces to the lot.

"We are going to correct [the omission] this time around," Falzarano said.

When residents receive the list of rules from the 2010 resolution, which passed Tuesday night, it will include the language indicating what overflow lots can be used. "It was left off inadvertently," Falzarano said of the language. "We are going to make it [the directions] very clear."

The council and Falzarano discussed the idea of including a sticker in this year's parking renewal packet for residents to put on the back of their permits that would list the overflow lots.

Falzarano and Borough Engineer Vince DeNave plan to add four to five more spots to the railroad parking lot soon, in addition to the eight added last week. The borough has also stopped selling the vacant permit parking spaces for $5 per day starting at 8 a.m. Instead, the permits for the empty spaces will become valid after rush hour at 10 a.m., Falzarano said. That way, people like Boyle who take the 9:27 a.m. train to New York have a better chance of finding a vacant space.

Council Member James Lonergan said he was aware there had been days when the lots were full and had received e-mails from residents who didn't know about the overflow lots.

"I think there are some things we have to do to improve," Falzarano said of the discrepancy. "We are going to get in sync with that. ... You can always get better and improve."

Chatham Patch readers have debated the issue, calling it everything from "annoying" to "a waste of a story."

Boyle said the council meeting went better than she thought it would, and was particularly pleased to hear that the borough would not start selling daily permits until after rush hour ends.

"I really hope that the remedies he has put in place work. At the end of the day, what they are selling is a product—the ability to park at the train station—and they have sold each and every space in there," Boyle said. "It's a very fine line between maximizing revenue and depriving people of the services they bought.

"We'll see what happens in the coming days," she added.