Community Corner

A New Look at RVC Parking Lots

Village takes part in think tank's design challenge.

Parking lots in Rockville Centre may soon take on a new shape.

The village is one of four areas on Long Island that will be used as a palette in the Long Island Index’s Build a Better Burb: ParkingPLUS Design Challenge. The challenge aims to reveal “new concepts of parking design that incorporate needed local amenities and make parking facilities an architectural attraction for downtown areas.”

Rockville Centre will work with Utile, Inc., an engineering firm based in Boston, to clarify the village’s needs and identify potential sites for a design intervention. No specific parking lot has been selected for the project, but it will be one that flanks the Long Island Rail Road station.

Find out what's happening in Rockville Centrewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Utile will receive a stipend and has six weeks to prepare designs. At that time, the work will be submitted for review and then will be unveiled by the Long Island Index in January. The hope is that the plans are followed through and built.

“There are more than 4,000 acres of surface parking lots in and around Long Island’s downtowns, so the opportunity to re-think parking on Long Island is enormous,” said Ann Golob, director of the Long Island Index. “Imagine how we could better use that space! That’s what these four firms will be doing in order to engage Long Islanders in re-thinking the parking potential of our downtown areas.”

Find out what's happening in Rockville Centrewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The other Long Island communities chosen for the project are Patchogue, Ronkonkoma and Westbury.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here