Cold Spring Parking
Forge Ahead With Us
Kathleen E. Foley, Cold Spring Village Trustee and candidate for Mayor
Tweeps Phillips Woods, Cold Spring Village Trustee and candidate for Trustee
Eliza Starbuck, candidate for Trustee
Forge Ahead With Us Team’s Position on the Cold Spring Parking Plan
Why do we need a parking plan?
If cars were water, Cold Spring’s business district and its side streets would be flooded during business hours almost every day of the week. Public parking in Cold Spring is a finite resource, like clean water. And like clean water, there is not enough of it for everyone to use as much of it as they want. We need a new way of thinking about village parking and a fair and rational way of sharing it.
The current system, in which there is little regulation of parking, has many challenging impacts:
Car traffic increases as the expectation of free long-term parking draws drivers into the village, where they circle the streets looking for an open spot. Noise, congestion, and air pollution rise; pedestrians are less safe; and the village must spend more on traffic management, an expense borne by our taxpayers.
Steady growth in tourism means that many residents struggle to find parking on the streets near their homes, where they should have priority.
Public parking spaces are a valuable commodity. Heavy users pay nothing for the parking benefit they derive from public streets. There is no incentive to responsibly limit use.
Main Street businesses suffer because low parking turnover on the street drives customers away.
What will a good parking plan achieve?
A fair parking plan encourages everyone living, working and visiting Cold Spring to be mindful about reducing their parking useage. A rational plan encourages visitors to take Metro-North trains to the Village instead of driving, and if they do drive, to park in municipal lots and private lots like Metro North. It encourages residents to walk to nearby destinations in our walkable village. It tailors parking in the business district to business transactions on weekends. It creates a balance between use and cost, so that visitors who park on public streets and in municipal lots return something to the community. It includes incentives to discourage people from parking on the street when they don’t need to or for longer than they need to.
What does the community want?
Our village has been discussing the creation of a parking plan that would establish resident permits and meters on Main Street for over ten years. In 2021, a newly-constituted parking committee met weekly for six months, collecting extensive comments from the public to shape a plan. Participants included homeowners, renters, business owners and residents of Philipstown who frequent Cold Spring.
As reflected in the committee’s final recommendations, participating stakeholders coalesced around several issues:
They want street parking near their homes and easier parking on Main Street for locals to shop (including more quick-stop spots)
Hikers and other day-trippers should be welcomed but managed so visitor vehicles cause fewer parking shortages in the heart of the Village
The village ought to receive revenue from drivers who use public parking for shopping, dining, and entertainment
ADA parking should be available free of charge
In their current roles as Village trustees, Kathleen E. Foley and Tweeps Phillips Woods voted to adopt the Parking Committee’s recommendations. Along with their running mate on the Forge Ahead team, Eliza Starbuck, they support the implementation of the recommendations in a logical phased approach, bolstered by strong communication with the public.
What if I’m unhappy about something in the recommendations adopted by the Village Board?
The Village has to address parking in some way to bring both parking relief and revenue. The Forge Ahead team considers the recommendations an adequate starting point but in need of some clarifications, including a budgeted and phased implementation and enforcement plan with data tracking abilities to assess successes and weaknesses over time. We believe that further delaying implementation of a parking plan would be irresponsible.
Rarely are public policy initiatives perfect when first adopted. Good policymakers assume that every new policy will need to be updated after it is put in place and its effects are observed and documented. The Forge Ahead team looks forward to listening to community feedback about the adopted recommendations as they are implemented, and tweaking it as needed. The final result will be improved quality of life for everyone, which the community will have forged together.
