Greenport residents suggest ways to alleviate parking pain

Greenport Village officials are mulling over an idea from Greenport residents to create resident parking stickers to help them manage downtown parking problems during the busy summer months.

“It is no secret that Greenport Village has been discovered and grown to become more of a destination,” Rachel Bosworth, who lives on Main Street, told the board of trustees at its meeting Monday. Bosworth said residents she had spoken with and tourists have grown concerned about the struggle to find parking in Greenport during the summer.

Bosworth suggested starting a residential sticker program that would allow residents to park in the village without time restrictions. Bosworth also suggested creating central lots marked as “Resident Only” parking, pointing to a municipal lot next to the IGA supermarket on South Street as one possible location.

Resident stickers “would be something to say, ‘Hey, please, I live here. Please give me a little bit of a courtesy,’ ” said Kelly Franké, another Main Street resident, who added the downtown area was very congested and she often found it difficult to find parking.

Trustee Doug Roberts called parking stickers “an interesting idea,” noting the challenges downtown village residents have in finding parking, and that creating stickers for people living in downtown buildings that don’t have designated parking could be one solution.

Others suggested the idea wasn’t fair.

“We’re going to lose all our parking in the downtown area if we assign it just for people who live down there,” village resident Chatty Allen said at the meeting.

“I don’t feel village taxpayers are responsible for providing parking for landlords and their tenants,” trustee Mary Bess Phillips said Thursday.

Mayor George Hubbard said Thursday it could be difficult to create resident parking because of the lack of space in the village, adding he wasn’t sure how the village could enforce such restrictions.

But he said the board would be open to listening to more about the idea as part of the discussion on how to alleviate parking problems.

“The more different ideas we get, the better the discussion,” Hubbard said.