Opinions differed both on the board and in the audience at last Thursday's village board meeting, with regard to the length of time being given to the property owners' associations to comment on the planning commission's recently released parking study.

This parking study's recommendations were, according to the study, comprised of a careful consideration of the many options presented by the parking consultant, combined with sentiments of the homeowners and business community as presented at the public meetings and through other forms of communications. Mayor Harold Hecken stated, "This is a complex issue and one which will result in some degree of disagreement. Nevertheless, the board and I are anxious to move forward with considerations of the commission's recommendations. We also highly value the input from the property owners' associations, chamber of commerce, traffic commission, and staff."

The mayor went on to note that each of the POAs and the chamber had the opportunity to speak at the commission's public meetings and address the parking consultant's findings. He continued to say that each of the POAs and the chamber were also provided with copies of the planning commission's parking study on Oct. 27. He then requested that the chamber of commerce and the POAs provide their written remarks, questions, and concerns to the board no later than Nov. 30.

Deputy Mayor Robert Lewis disagreed with Hecken's view that the POAs have had ample time to respond to the parking study, noting that only two POA boards had the total packet delivered, the others were missing information. Lewis said that he believes Nov. 30 is too quick a period of time for the board to expect responses and said that there were a number of issues in the consultants preliminary report that were not in the planning commission's report. Lewis said he would like time to find out why they weren't in the final report and why they were not addressed and he said he believes the POAs will have these same questions. "We do have a grassroots organization here, the POAs are one of the things that makes this a fine village," said Lewis.

These concerns were also shared by Trustee Dr. Barbara Miller, who also encouraged the mayor to reconsider this deadline for the POAs.

Hecken said that because of the Christmas holidays coming up he wanted to have the comments in but he added that he would not push the time, but rather would encourage the POAs to have their comments in by Nov. 30 so the board could start considering the report.

Trustee Peter Bee stated that he heartily endorses moving forward with the report and added that the Nov. 30 date would give plenty of time for the POAs to comment.

Peter Negri, president of the Central Property Owners' Association, questioned whether or not there would be a public hearing about the planning commission report before the board took a vote or drew any conclusions. The mayor and board at this time have not set up a public hearing. Trustee John Mauk, who was previously the chairman of the planning commission and currently serves as the liaison to the planning commission stated that he believes that the public has had considerable opportunity to comment prior to the release of the commission's parking study.

"The planning commission's parking study has taken place for 16 months, the planning commission basically has had eight months on the preliminary study, five months on the final study, to make their recommendations," said Negri. "Do the trustees feel that it's reasonable to give the POAs one month to digest and recommend?"

Nick Episcopia, Eastern Property Owners Association vice president stated that his POA agrees with the fact that the trustees do need to move the process along because it has been studied for 18 months, but explained, on the other hand they have a meeting coming up and would like another two to three weeks, at least until their December meeting, for an opportunity to make comments to give residents an opportunity to get their comments to the board or officers of the EPOA. "We really don't want to drag this on for a long period of time. We understand that a decision has to be made but we would like to request perhaps that maybe we could have another two - three weeks so we could have time to receive comments from all the residents and our directors."

Trustee Bruce Torino expressed the importance of deadlines. "As the mayor said, this is a benchmark, it is not an absolute," said Torino. He added that thus far no reason other than the need for more time has been presented to the board and said he would like to hear some definitive reason why the POAs cannot get their comments in by Nov. 30. "We have debated this issue extensively. If you come to us, as a body and say, we have resolved most of what we need, we need more time on a particular issue or set of issues. That is what we as trustees are looking for," said Torino. He said that if they have most of the comments, except with regard to particular issues then they can at least begin considering the study and attached comments and just disregard the issues that the POAs have problems with for the time being.

Arnold Fenimore, treasurer of the Western Property Owners' Association, noted that, as an officer of a POA he still has not had the opportunity to look at the report and said that he too would like to request more time to comment.

Russell Matthews, executive vice president of the Albanese Development Corporation, "As we all know, nothing has been studied more thoroughly in this village than parking. It goes back to the 1930s, 1969 Village Facts set forth all of the work the village had done at that time, every parking study since then has stated what this report now confirms." He went on to remind Lewis that the Business Planning Coalition, which consisted of 15 members, 10 of whom were residents, four being representatives of each of the property owners' associations, also studied the parking study very thoroughly. "There is nothing new here. Every property owners' association for the past three or four years has been very thoroughly informed about the conditions here," said Matthews, encouraging the board to act, "decisively and quickly."

Hecken pointed out that times have changed since the original parking studies were conducted and noted that the issues that are being looked at pertain to the way the village parking is currently configured.

Lewis said that he was not speaking to the content of the report but was speaking to the process in the village, in which the POAs must be taken into consideration. Matthews responded that people sometimes abuse the process and may use it to delay certain acts.

Bert Donley, president of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce stated that the chamber of commerce parking committee would be meeting this week and will make recommendations to the chamber's board. He added that those recommendations would be refined and the chamber hopes to have them ready by Nov. 15 rather than the 30th.

Maureen Valenti, a 10th Street resident whose home would be directly impacted by some of the recommendations added her sentiments that the residents needed more time to study the report. She commented that the report says that the needs of the businesses and the residents are taken into consideration but said that she cannot find where the needs of the residents are considered in the planning commission's report.

Torino noted that there will never be enough parking because people do not want to have to walk any distance to where they are going. "There has to be a balance, an accommodation between the business interests and the resident interests. I very much agree with you that the perspective of the residents may not be reflected in the report," said Torino. "That is the reason why the mayor has sought input from all the POAs in order that the resident input with regard to what is the proper balance is developed. The implementation of whatever course this board or any board determines to make has to do with the degree of accommodation that we feel is just. We may not please everybody, we probably won't." Torino went on to note that many residents throughout the village are impacted by traffic and parking in some manner or another and encouraged input from the residents.

Gregory Moore, a resident of Wyndham, stated, " I feel the issue is what's good for Garden City, what's good for the business community as well as everybody else. I feel that this town should cooperate with its business community because a good healthy business community helps us all. Our taxes are always going up and I would like to have a nice, healthy business community to help with my taxes."

Richard Schrafel, president of the Estates POA noted that as newly elected president he pledged that the board would not take any position without open discussion among the residents. He said that in that regard, because his association already has programs planned for their meeting this month, they most likely would not make the Nov. 30 deadline. Schrafel added "I believe that we are a grassroots government and we want to get information from our residents."