Mineola to add 900 parking spaces in pair of downtown garages

Mineola officials said Friday that the village will become home to a pair of parking garages that will add at least 900 more spaces in a downtown area that has long lacked ample parking options.

Mayor Scott Strauss said the parking garages are part of a deal that the village scored with state officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In January 2016, the village met with officials from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office about the upcoming Long Island Rail Road third track project. During those discussions, village officials negotiated getting more parking for its downtown, Strauss said.

A 550-space garage will be at First Street and Third Avenue, Strauss said, and construction will begin around September. A timeline for the other garage hasn’t been decided, but it will be on Second Street between Willis Avenue and Main Street and will have between 350 and 450 spaces, Strauss said.

Finding a downtown parking spot has long been a struggle for Mineola residents, in part because the existing parking lots must accommodate employees and patients at NYU Winthrop Hospital, commuters boarding trains at the nearby LIRR station, customers visiting downtown restaurants and residents of apartment complexes. Strauss said it is easiest to find a downtown space in the morning.

“This is going to be a tremendous boost to our downtown,” he said. “There will be parking for anyone coming, whether it’s to shop in the stores or visit a loved one in the hospital.”

The parking garages fit into Mineola’s larger plan to provide more spaces throughout downtown. In a study released in 2016, Old-Bethpage-based Level G Associates told village officials that downtown specifically “experiences the highest parking supply-demand imbalance in the village by a wide margin.” Level G recommended several fixes for the area, including building a garage at First Street and Third Avenue.

Great Neck Mayor Jean Celender, who is also vice president of the Nassau County Village Officials Association, said that parking garages can be a double-edged sword for villages because they alleviate parking woes, but that they are also costly to maintain. Celender noted that her village had a parking garage in 2000 that wasn’t weatherproofed and began to crumble.

“So the word to Mineola is: It’s great to have a garage, but make sure it’s weatherproofed with a special membrane, and don’t put anything on that membrane,” Celender said.

Strauss said he is glad the MTA will construct the First Street garage and that he actually wants unfilled spaces there.

“I hope the top three levels are empty because that means I got plenty of parking for anyone who wants to come to Mineola,” he said.