Borough Parking Standards Could Undergo Improvements

Susan Blickstein, the new professional planner to the Chatham Borough Planning Board, told board members some of her ideas for throughout the borough at the May 18 meeting.

In her first meeting as the official planner, Blickstein discussed points she had made across two memos to the board, analying a 2009 business zone study in Chatham Borough.

Board members had decided last year that the study, executed by the Taylor Design Group, . Now that Blickstein has taken the position, instituting some of the suggested improvements to parking will be among her main tasks.

“You will see areas [in the memo] where I actually suggest something that’s a little bit different, but I really tried to build on the work that was previously done with respect to the recommendations for parking standards,” she said.

Banks

Blickstein said she feels comfortable with the study’s recommendation of 4.75 spaces per thousand square feet of building, preferring it over the borough’s current standard of two spaces per every teller, plus two per employee, plus two per individual walk-up ATMs.

With the current standard, she said, one would always have to know how many people are being staffed in a bank to be able to know how many spaces are needed.

“Most people would say that, from an enforcement perspective, that is not very ideal,” Blickstein said.

Board president Richard Crater said he was also comfortable with the suggestion for 4.75 spaces per thousand square feet, saying that the in-house demands at local banks greatly decreased over the past decade with the growing popularity of online banking.