Politics & Government

Atlantic Yards-Area Parking Permits Still a Big 'Maybe'

The city will divulge little detail on how seriously it's considering a program to restrict side-street parking to area residents.

Parking in Brownstone Brooklyn is already a headache—and that’s without the extra traffic the Barclays Arena will bring to the area once the 18,000-seat arena opens for the 2012 basketball season.

To cope with the impending parking pain, residents have continually pressed the city to initiate residential parking permits—but the city has given locals little more than an ambiguous maybe.

“The community has expressed an interest in Residential Parking Permits for arena events and we are looking into a number of solutions to deal with the parking concerns in the area,” said Department of Transportation Spokesperson Scott Gastel.

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He echoed statements made last week by DOT Downtown Brooklyn coordinator Chris Hrones at a hearing on the.

"We need to explore how it would work. This is something we will be looking at in the coming months," said Hrones.

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And at a , Prospect Heights Councilwoman Letitia James said of residential parking permits, "It may happen, on a pilot basis," but declined to elaborate.

Residents see the residential parking permits as non-optional for the neighborhood, which is already oversaturated with vehicles circling for parking spaces, often for up to 30 or 40 minutes. The proposed arena parking lot, at least for the near future, would hold just 1,100 cars.

"Parking is such a hassle and I sometimes just keep my car parked so I don't have to move it. Once the stadium is open people will flock to hog up the parking spaces. they should build more parking garages to accommodate them," said Dimitry Wright, 51, of Vanderbilt Avenue and Park Place.

But other Prospect Heights residents weren't sure they wanted the permits. 

"I'm on the fence about this," said Katie Barrott, 30, a resident of Washington Avenue and Dean Street. "I think it could work but it may not help in the long run."

"It's a catch 22," she added. "It may be a domino affect on your own neighbors. Just because we will all have permits, we may end up taking spots from residents from other blocks."

Mike Jones, president of the block association for the St. Johns Place, Washington Avenue area, was also unsure.

"I think the permits are beneficial, but I feel we're going to get the short end of the stick. I'm skeptical in a sense because it's not really going to make a difference and people are going to do what they want to do. Is the city going to have people on standby to tow those illegally parked?" he said.

Several neighborhoods in the city already have residential parking permits including Brooklyn Heights and Forest Hills.

Any sort of permit plan would need to be approved by the state legislature. It’s not clear exactly what the conditions or costs of such a parking permit would be for residents.

Kaia Zawadi contributed reporting to this article.


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