A Municipal Parking Lot For Kings Park? Councilman Creighton Asks For Appraisal Approval

Site of proposed municipal parking lotA 20-22 parking space municipal parking lot on Pulaski Road in Kings Park has been proposed by Councilman Robert Creighton.  The cost of the wooded lot located behind the Park Bakery Shop pre-appraisal is $279,000. Councilman Creighton along with Councilman Wehrheim support the purchase of the lot and would like to move forward by getting an official appraisal of the property. 

The appraisal is expected to cost approximately $2,000.  The proposed municipal parking lot is a response to 604 signatures on a petition calling for increased parking in the hamlet of Kings Park. At the Tuesday morning work session Councilman Creighton asked his colleagues to give him a “yes” or “no” on moving forward on the appraisal. The response was “NO” from Supervisor Vecchio and “we need more information” from council members McCarthy and Nowick. Councilman Wehrheim was not at the work session but supports the proposed municipal parking lot and moving forward on the appraisal. 

Pulaski Rd., Kings ParkAll council members agree that there is a need for additional parking in downtown areas throughout the town. How the town will address its parking deficit is the issue before the board. Supervisor Vecchio adamantly rejects the concept that taxpayers town wide should shoulder the cost of building a parking lot that will benefit a small number of businesses in the area. “In addition to the cost of purchasing the property there are the additional costs of drainage, paving, striping and maintenance of the property. I do not believe residents in Smithtown, St. James and Hauppauge will want to pay for this.”  said Supervisor Vecchio.   

Councilman Creighton feels that the proposed lot will help to address the parking deficit in the area. “It’s not about building a parking lot for businesses, you build it for the the residents who shop in the area, the people who use the businesses. Additional parking may encourage more people to shop in local stores.” Councilman Wehrheim agrees, “The whole Kings Park business district would benefit from additional municipal parking.”

Create a Business Improvement District (BID) was a suggestion that Supervisor Vecchio offered. A BID would allow business owners in the special district to tax themselves for improvements they support. Councilman McCarthy asked for an aerial view of the site and Councilwoman Nowick concurred, “More information is needed before I can support this proposal.  If we move forward on this we will need to bond the project and that is something that I am unprepared to support at this time. I need more information and will make my decision when I get answers.”

“We need more parking but we need to explore grants and other means of funding projects.” said Councilman McCarthy. 

Councilman Creighton reiterated his position, “a simple yes or no. Yes we get an appraisal, no and the project doesn’t happen. It really shouldn’t take two weeks to get an answer.”

Comments

[Alan Kerner]

Councilman Creighton is going to have to wait a lot longer for a decision given the stunt his pal Puleo has pulled. Frankly the Town can not afford to build a parking lot in Kings Park when it has a special election and legal fees to look forward to paying for with taxpayer money. Why does Kings Park need additional parking spaces anyway? Every day I drive down Main Street and there always seems to be ample parking along the road.