Residents Sound Off on St. Agnes Lot Fee

The village's new lease with St. Agnes to rent the parking lot on Quealy Avenue calls for commuters to pay $4 a day to park there, and some residents say the additional fee is unfair and unaffordable.

The extra cost to park in the 96-spot lot became a contentious issue at last night's village board meeting, as several commuters complained that they already pay enough in parking stickers, which can be as expensive as $300 a year.

"It's obvious that there is no regard for what the community has to say on the subject," said village resident Donna DiVirgilio. "Why does the cost of the lease have to be put on the backs of the residents?"

Village officials said the fee was implemented to help defray the cost of the ten-year lease with St. Agnes, which totals $655,500 over the span of a decade.

DiVirgilio explained that if a resident parked in the St. Agnes lot for an entire five-day work week over the span of a year, they would have to pay nearly a $1,000. In hard economic times, she added, it's just another financial hardship on an already heavily-taxed community. "Most residents can't afford this increase," she said. "We already pay for parking stickers."

Mayor Mary Bossart explained that the St. Agnes lot offers premium commuter parking, and people will now have to pay to park close to the station. She noted that there are other lots within a block or two of the train station — by the Terry Animal Hospital and behind the police station — and that the additional fee was not something she wanted to do, but needed to in order to keep the lease.

"We did everything we could to balance the interests of the residents," she said.

On Monday morning, when the new fee went in affect, the heavily-used lot had many vacant spots when it would normally be filled by 8 a.m. Rockville Centre resident Rebecca Horowitz, who takes the 6:33 a.m. into Manhattan everyday, said she parked in that lot for 10 years, but now uses the one behind SportSet. She noted that the lot was empty on Tuesday morning. "I don't know how it will generate revenue if no one parks there," she said.

Trustee David Krasula noted that the board debated other scenarios, like a lottery among those with parking stickers to determine who could use the 96 spots, but decided that wouldn't be fair to residents and commuters. "The idea was to spread it out and give an opportunity for everyone to use the lot on any given day," he said.

Bossart added that they will see how profitable the new fee is within the next month.