Village has earned nearly $30,000 since April 5
At the outset of Wednesday’s (June 5) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board, Mayor Kathleen Foley put the village parking debate in an interesting context.
“The earliest reference we’ve found to the village attempting to balance visitor and resident parking was a New York Times article about visiting Cold Spring published in 1989,” she said.
The article alluded to the possibility of Main Street parking meters and the need for resident parking on side streets.
“Clearly this community has been talking about meters and parking for a very long time,” she said, including the creation of a parking committee in 2008.
Foley said that in public sessions leading up to the parking plan’s implementation in April, the board made clear its need to balance priorities and stakeholders’ needs.
She said the priorities include reducing traffic density, increasing visitor use of public transportation and encouraging parking in the municipal and Metro-North lots while preserving resident parking and village character.
Foley said a key for the village is its ability to generate income to offset the cost of tourism. Village residents bear this expense because Putnam County doesn’t share sales tax revenue with its municipalities.
“Parking is one revenue stream we can optimize,” she said, adding that the board had committed to launching the parking plan, observing how well it worked and modifying it as needed.
The meters were implemented April 5 on Main Street between Depot Square and Route 9D. They are enforced from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. A permit program allows residents to park on most sections of side streets in the village core.
The 2024-25 village budget projects $284,596 in meter revenue and $11,500 from resident permits.
A contingent of Main Street shop owners attended Wednesday’s meeting and many spoke in support of recommendations outlined in a May 1 letter from 36 merchants to the board. It asked trustees to reduce the $4 per hour meter rate and increase the three-hour time limit. It also asked the board to consider employee permits and motorcycle spaces.
Grace Lo, who co-chairs the Main Street Merchants Committee and also lives on Main Street, said retailers have seen as much as a 25 percent drop in sales, “a pretty big hit” that she and others attributed to the meters.
Robert Le Blanc, owner of The Shoppes at 103 Main St., said the welcoming atmosphere Cold Spring has built over the years is being lost. “People who received a $75 ticket will probably never return,” he said, expressing concern that Cold Spring will become known as a “tourist trap.”
He urged the board to increase time limits while reducing fees and fines. “Without your help, many of us may not survive,” he said.
Craig Muraszewski, owner of The General Store, was critical of parking data presented by Trustee Aaron Freimark, saying it “missed the human element” by dealing only with money. “What we’re hearing is the discomfort, the anger from people who just got a $75 parking ticket.”
The parking plan is needed, he said, but is “a short-term win for the village budget” that will not help business over the long term. “In 10 years, this is the first time ever I missed two months in a row by over $20,000.”
He cited the trickle-down effect of having to lay off an employee. “That’s one employee who won’t go to Doug’s Pub for dinner, won’t go to the café for coffee, and won’t go across the street for a bottle of wine on the way home.”
Doug Price, owner of Doug’s Pretty Good Pub, complained that from Monday through Thursday, when meters are not in force, cars park all day on Main Street, which he said keeps him from opening for lunch. He also called for improved signage that explains the parking requirements.
Erin Murphy, owner of Reservoir, said her business is down 30 percent for April and May. She said Fridays have been the worst and called the slowdown in visitors to her shop after 3 p.m. “shocking.”
Murphy said she moved to Cold Spring because of its charm, beauty and vibrant Main Street. “It takes a long time to build what Cold Spring created here but it takes just moments to ruin it,” she said. “Once people have a bad taste in their mouth they can find another village; they won’t come back.”
Murphy said her shop requires customers to take their time. She advocated increasing the parking time limit but said, “It’s really about the parking rate.”
While Main Street business owners expressed concern, not everyone was negative about parking. Dan Valentine, who lives on Garden Street, was one of three residents who commented on the effectiveness of the resident permit program, which largely prohibits visitors from parking on side streets on weekends.
Before the permits, he said, it was not unusual for commuters to park in front of his house from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. or for others to leave their vehicles for up to two weeks when going to the airport.
“Now when we come home, there is actually a place where we can park near our house,” he said.
Valentine, who served on the Parking Committee, said he feels $4 per hour is too high but added that the time limit on meters discourages hikers from parking on Main Street for the day as they have in the past.
Trustee Eliza Starbuck, who has done much of the leg work in implementing the fledgling plan, said the most common model in other communities includes parking fees between 50 cents and $2 per hour, enforced seven days a week.
The Parking Committee had recommended meters be activated only on weekends with residential parking restrictions in effect daily, she said. “We took that, and it evolved through our board process and revenue meetings,” Starbuck said, adding that changes will take time.
“That’s scary when it’s affecting your business,” said Starbuck, who owns Flowercup Wine on Main Street. “Some changes are easier to make than others,” she said, adding that the board is open to suggestions and ideas.
“This puts us in a tough position; we have a budget with budget goals,“ including parking fees, Trustee Laura Bozzi said. “What are the options, creative solutions, other than changing the fees?”
Foley said the board made its best guess regarding revenue from fees, knowing that changes might have to be made. “We just have to find the change that’s workable across the board,” the mayor said, suggesting financial modeling be done to show the impact of different price points.
“The trustees and merchants are aligned on many achievable next steps,” Foley wrote in an email to The Current on Thursday. “On our end, we need to run numbers and identify options for rate adjustments that make sense for Main Street and the village budget.”
The mayor said the board will continue the discussion at its June 12 meeting.
In other business…
■ The board agreed to a fire protection agreement with the Village of Nelsonville for services provided by the Cold Spring Fire Company.
■ The board approved an agreement with Philipstown for food scrap collection.
■ Gentech LTD was hired to repair the fire company’s backup generator.
■ Arthur Mendoza and Daniel Maldonado were hired as police officers.
■ Jeff Phillips Jr. resigned from the Roadways and Facilities Department; David Capobianco was hired for $20 per hour.
Talk about penny wise and pound foolish! What the heck is wrong with these people on the board, especially the mayor, who should know better?
Here’s a pro tip for Ms. Foley and the Powers that Be: Tourists do not cost money, they bring money into your village and spend it. Cold Spring is the envy of other towns like mine (Putnam Valley) that have no retail or tourism. Why do you think our taxes are so much higher than yours?
Please look at the big picture before you kill the goose that laid the golden egg. If your businesses are forced to close because they aren’t making enough money, wait and see how much your taxes will have to go up to make up the difference.
When I heard that the cost for parking would be $4 per hour, and violations $75, I noted that was more than the parking fines on Madison Avenue and the hourly rate in the four boroughs other than Manhattan. Also, one must download an app to park, unless going to a kiosk. There might be many who prefer not to have to download an app to park as the data suggests from the Fair Street lot.
If one looks at the data, there were 4,439 first-time parking users, and from there the data drops off severely, for two- to six-time parking users (just four). That should be telling the Village Board something.
It seems that it would be a good idea to lower both the hourly rates and the violation costs as soon as possible. I understand that the Village Board is reacting to an overwhelmed infrastructure issue (like everywhere on this planet), but clearly there needs to be a better balance.
As far as trying to find other revenue to cover the budget, could the village possibly open a store or kiosk in its Main Street building and sell Cold Spring related items that could actually enhance the Cold Spring brand? There are so many creative people around that I am sure if y’all put your heads together some amazing things could be created and offered for sale! As a plumber once told me, there are “no problems, only solutions.” (I immediately hired him.) Maybe he was overly optimistic (can one be too optimistic?), but the message is “find a solution.”
After growing up in Philipstown and returning years later to buy a home in the village, the many changes have not escaped my attention: The closed shops in the 1970s, the rebirth in the 1980s with antique shops, surviving the pandemic to the bustling upscale shops and restaurants of today, a place where people want to explore, feel welcomed and return to. This is not something that has happened overnight.
The merchants have voiced their concerns: They love our town. They bring revenue to the village and are an intricate part of our community. These entrepreneurs spend exorbitant amounts of their own money to beautifully refurbish the buildings and build businesses –- far from an easy task.
After attending the meeting about the parking dilemma on June 5, as a taxpayer and voter, I left feeling dismayed and surprised as to how the concerns of all in attendance landed on deaf ears. While parking has been an issue for far too long, the solution to this problem is short-sighted: $4 per hour and $75 fines, without being able to add time if need be. The board has said this will be revisited. I say it needs to be revised immediately. Anyone who has gotten a ticket will never come back. Word is spreading fast, as bad news does. The influx of people to our beloved town shouldn’t be considered a problem. Accommodating consumers who come here should be a priority.
When people run for public office and are granted that position, they take on the moniker of “public servant” and are acting for the public good. It is without a doubt, in many ways, the hardest job to do properly, with it comes great responsibility. Please restore the belief that you are all here for the public good and turn this around. Do the right thing immediately. Let’s not “wait and see” while our Main Street becomes the ghost town of the past.
Where were all the people crying foul against the parking when they were discussing it for a long time? There were tons of meetings open to the public where comments were taken and acted upon. It’s kind of late to complain after the barn door was left open and the bull got out.
How about the merchants get together and set up a voucher system to cover parking fees for customers? It’s unfair to the village trustees to spend more of their valuable time on this issue. They need to address far bigger issues, not including painting lavender parking spots for the village’s finest.