City Council addresses parking updates in Saratoga Springs

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — At the recent City Council meeting, two different updates regarding parking around the city were given — one concerning parking at the Saratoga Springs Public Library and the new paid Seasonal Parking Program being implemented later this spring.

Library Parking

An amendment to the originally filed agreement was passed unanimously by the City Council on Tuesday, May 7 in favor of altering parking restrictions at the Saratoga Public Library. These new restrictions will give priority parking to library patrons during the day and will allow the city to utilize the lot for the new seasonal paid parking program outside of library operating hours.

“We are grateful,” Library Executive Director Issac Pulver shared following the amendment’s passing. “We have been working on this iteration for several months. Several precipitating factors made this an especially important thing to do now — the parking situation has been problematic since the library opened in 1995, so it has taken a while but we are grateful at this point to be able to prioritize parking for library users.”

The new seasonal parking plan being implemented by the city brought this issue to the forefront of library leader’s minds, and they decided to bring forward amendments to the city for their approval. A presentation was given at the May 7 meeting, discussing the growth of the library, and how the regulations that were established in the document when the lot for the library was purchased in 1992 no longer work.

Things like the library’s services significantly evolving and expanding, the school district the library serves growing sustainably, and infill development in the area increasing parking demands from non-library users were all reasons given as to why changes needed to be made.

Among other things, the original agreement outlined that the lot had to be opened to the general public on a first come first serve basis.

It also set up a joint parking commission that hasn’t met since the 1990s. These new amendments note that the patrons of the library will have priority during operating hours and will also replace the parking commission with a new more nimble agreement that will allow the city and library to work together more flexibly if changes are needed to be made in the future.

Earlier in the meeting, members of the community spoke in favor of the proposed amendments. Ed Lindner, who was the library’s attorney in 1992, shared he drafted the original agreement and that the original agreement was the compromise that was possible at the time but needed to be updated.

“We knew in 1992 that this day would come,” Lindner said. “For the Library to fulfill its mission it has to be accessible to all their patrons. Some of their patrons are getting a little older, some have mobility issues, and even the young families,  moms and dads who are wrestling with toddlers and strollers as they try to get to storytime — for those patrons, having to go block and blocks away to find a parking space isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s an actual disincentive to using the library at all.”

With the amendments passing, Pulver shared the library would continue to maintain the lot while the city enforced it. Much like with the seasonal parking program, passes would be given out to library card holders to park in the lot — with roll-out looking to be around the same time those for the parking program do there.

“So we are going to partner with the city with this new permitting software the city has that will provide the permits for downtown workers and for residents to park in the city-owned lots,” Pulver said. “We’re going to piggyback on that same system and issue permits to library card holders who live within the library district that will be specific to this lot. It’ll be enforced the same way that the city will do the enforcement in their own lots.”

“We will be putting the word out to the public very soon, and it will most likely correspond with the city’s seasonal parking program — which was one of the precipitating things that made this come to the forefront at this time.”

Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub shared the idea with this is to incorporate the needs of the community, and with the Library being a significant part of the community this was something that made sense to do.

“The residents who use the library need a place to park and they are really concerned that there is a lack of parking in that specific area and that is definitely compounded in the summer,” Golub said. “The agreement we had was antiquated, it needed to be updated and passing the seasonal parking program created the opportunity for them to come to us and say ‘This is not really working and that we need a place that is primarily for library patrons during the day.’

“That is what it is now.”

Seasonal Parking Program Update

As previously reported, the city of Saratoga Springs is implementing a new paid Seasonal Parking program, from Memorial Day through Labor Day that affects certain city-owned, off-street parking facilities. Residents of Saratoga Springs, or those with proof of regular employment, verified by their employer, at a business within the Urban Core district of the City (as identified on the Zoning Map) may apply for permits to park free of charge.

At Tuesday Night’s meeting, Golub provided an update regarding this program stating that the parking permits are currently being tested and the plan is to begin rolling out to the public by the end of this week.

One important thing of note in regard to permits —  if anyone has more than two outstanding parking tickets, they will need to pay those in order to obtain a free permit. Another thing of note is the timeline in which this program will be put into place.

“We want to make sure that this program is implemented the right way this summer, that means being thoughtful on when paid parking will start downtown,” Golub said. “Prior to or during the Belmont will only add to an already chaotic time for our downtown community, with this in mind we plan to install and start paid parking the week following the Belmont Stakes.”

Residents will be able to register themselves with proof of residency and their license plate information. Business owners will be able to register all their employees as fleet managers, the city will need a point of contact for each business that will be set up in the system to register employees. Both of these will be able to be accomplished through the city hall website or in person at City Hall.