Albany’s resident permit parking network is set to expand this weekend. With major downtown development on the horizon, advocates say city parking has to be approached correctly.
The parking network will expand by 750 spaces beginning Feb. 14.
The city’s Park South, Lincoln Park and Sheridan Hollow neighborhoods are some of the areas where residents can expect to find more spaces.
According to the city’s Chief Supervisor of Traffic Engineering William Trudeau Jr., the expansion marks a significant improvement for residential parking, with a focus on Albany’s most densely populated neighborhoods.
“It’s not necessarily adding more parking spots. It’s making parking available for the residents to park during their day where in many cases the parking has been taken up by non-resident commuters,” Trudeau said.
The permits exempt residents from the two-hour time limit that non-residents must follow when parking their cars on residential streets.
Trudeau Jr. says residents have been complaining for years about insufficient parking in some Albany neighborhoods.
“And this allows our residents to have the ability to park their vehicles near their homes,” Trudeau Jr.
Kyle Hatch is the co-founder of Capital Streets, a local organization focused on improving the Capital Region’s transportation network by creating attractive, connected, usable neighborhood streets.
Hatch says his group appreciates the city taking steps to accommodate people who live in downtown neighborhoods.
“We think these are some of the things that are needed to make downtown a more attractive place to live, at the same time, we also really want the city to think comprehensively and most importantly long term about what the city’s transportation system might look like, as more people start to move downtown, which we know is one of the city’s goals,” Hatch said.
Hatch says parking is key when picturing a more populated downtown. And while he doesn’t have a single solution in mind, he envisions a scenario in which residents and visitors don’t have to compete with private establishments for spaces.
“There’s not really one answer I would say, I think it’s just really going to have to look at the whole system comprehensively and pulling all the stakeholders and getting a better understanding of what are the parking demands, what do we think those demands will look like in the future, as we have more residents in downtown and then how do we use the existing space that we have most efficiently to make downtown work for everybody and not just accommodating private vehicle storage,” Hatch said.
The addition of new parking in some neighborhoods comes as the Applyrs administration seeks to revitalize the city’s downtown. That effort is backed by $200 million in state funding made available last year.
With potential new development on the horizon, Hatch says having enough places to park downtown could be a challenge. But he does not necessarily see that as a problem.
“I don’t think that we should be afraid of the fact that parking might get competitive in downtown Albany, in my view, that means that downtown is thriving and a lot of people want to be there,” Hatch said.
Trudeau Jr. says as of now there are no plans to further expand the residential parking permit system beyond the expansion about to take effect.
“For the legislation that has been passed this is a one and done,” Trudeau said.
The city is encouraging residents to review updated parking information and renew their parking permits ahead of the implementation of new spaces.
