Town plans dramatic increase in resident-only parking at commuter lots

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The Town of Hempstead Board voted 6-0 on Tuesday to approve a plan to limit parking to residents only in most sections of town lots at Long Island Rail Road stations.

A resident using one of the lots after April 1 will have to purchase a $10 annual sticker or face a fine of up to $135 a day, provided that the proposal passes. Town public safety officers and Nassau County police will patrol the lots and issue tickets to vehicles without the stickers. Cars will not be towed, according to town spokeswoman Susan Trenkle-Pokalsky.

Hempstead previously had 2,400 resident-only spots before officials announced on Thursday that the town would expand the program to 6,400 spaces at town commuter lots, from Seaford to Baldwin.

Under the pilot program, stickers were $3.

Keeping non-residents out
Town Councilman Gary Hudes, a Republican from Levittown, said the stickers are needed to keep non-residents out of Hempstead lots. The town, he said, has received a number of reports of Suffolk County residents parking in Hempstead lots to reduce the cost of their monthly train tickets.

Stations from Massapequa to Rockville Centre fall in the LIRR’s Zone 7, where the monthly pass is $338. In the next zone east of that, Zone 9, which takes in communities from Babylon to Amityville, the monthly pass costs $377 –– a difference of $39 per month, or $468 a year.

“Town of Hempstead residents are paying to maintain these lots,” said Hudes. “Why are we entertaining residents from another county and other townships who should be parking in their own fields, where they are paying taxes?”

According to the MTA’s Origin and Destination Survey, roughly 95 percent of people who park at the Wantagh, Bellmore, Merrick and Baldwin stations live in the Town of Hempstead, while 80 percent of people parking at Seaford are from the town. MTA officials attribute the lower percentage of town residents at Seaford to the station’s proximity to the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway, which provides easy access for residents in nearby Zone 9, in Suffolk.

Town officials had traditionally contended that Hempstead could not limit parking in commuter lots to residents only because federal funds were used to construct them. Under federal statute, parking lots that are built with federal dollars must be open to anyone. According to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman, the State Department of Transportation built the lots during the 1960s as the LIRR’s Babylon Branch was elevated, likely with federal funds.

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