Debate over the village's longstanding parking problem in the business district may heat up in the coming weeks. The Village Board of Trustees plans to debate a proposed parking trust fund designed to create additional off-street parking at the Nov. 17 BOT meeting.

Admitting that the village has a "shortage of....parking" which is creating "congestion and a....negative impact upon the viability of the Village's business community," the BOT will consider amending the village code for a fund that would be used "exclusively for municipal off-street parking, including the acquisition....and maintenance of land, facilities or parking equipment."

The fund would work by "receiving monetary assessments upon the granting of parking variances." Such assessment collections would be the source of funds for both off-street parking and land acquisitions.

The village's Zoning Board of Appeals would determine the number of spaces for which any parking variance is eventually granted. Any parking spaces approved by the ZBA will be approved along with the payment of a "required fee" to the village by the business establishment in question.

The proposed law was first discussed at an Oct. 20 BOT meeting. The Nov. 17 meeting will be the occasion for further debate, if not an outright vote on the amendment.

At its meeting last Wednesday at Giardino's Cafe, members of the Roslyn Chamber of Commerce held their own debate on the merits of the amendment.

Earlier, Frederic Carlton, chamber president, listed his own concerns over the trust fund in a letter to the village. Mr. Carlton worried that the amendment does not identify the Village Business District "as the beneficiary of future additional parking" nor does it identify the district as "the express location of future municipal parking."

Mr. Carlton added that any future monies "should be restricted to the Creation and or Maintenance of additional municipal parking in the Village Business District only." In addition, no monies, Mr. Carlton wrote, should be used to "offset village costs in maintaining or improving its present parking facilities."

At the chamber meeting, the location of any future parking spaces was a main topic of discussion. Land off Glen Avenue in Roslyn and near the Amoco gas station were the only two areas chamber members could think of as viable future homes for up to 70 parking spaces.

Mr. Carlton asked John Durkin, the BOT member who is also in the chamber, that instead of starting up a parking fund, the village should see what land for parking spaces is available now. "If there is no property to acquire," Mr. Carlton asked, "where is the money going?"

Mr. Durkin also mentioned the land near the gas station as a future site for parking spaces. He also expressed his general approval of the trust fund idea.

In other chamber news, the members endorsed placing several Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) outside of the Roslyn Savings Bank, a proposition that remains bogged down in the Historic District Board.

They also agreed with the BOT and the mayor that garbage on Old Northern Boulevard is a real problem, making the village less attractive to outsiders. Mr. Carlton reiterated his support for a centralized location where merchants must place their trash on a regular basis.

Members also discussed the Roslyn Street Fairs, now held twice a year in the spring and fall. The members agreed that the operation of the fairs---held in conjunction with the village---have become "very cumbersome."

Instead, they proposed holding the fairs not on Old Northern Boulevard, but at Roslyn Pond Park. With the exception of delicatessen owners, merchants remain unhappy with the way such fairs, in the words of one real estate agent, "kill business on that day." Mr. Carlton saw big things for such a fair, claiming it could be "like the Oyster Bay Fest where 10,000 people show up."