Rye Town Park Unveils Proposed Fees for 2010 Season

The Rye Town Park Commission met Tuesday to unveil the proposed fees for parking and beach access and to discuss the park's proposed safety plan for 2010.

Just a week after a task force of Rye residents presented their recommendations for improving parking conditions at Rye Town--which include more than doubling the price for non-resident parking and decreasing parking availability by 50 percent--the commission debated whether the new parking fees proposed by park staff were enough to offset the park's revenue losses each year and combat the traffic issues that arise during the summer when close to 1,000 cars park there.

Rye Town Park Director Fred Gioffree presented the proposed fee increases for 2010, which include raising permit fees by $5 in every category.

Resident senior permits would increase to $30 and they would also pay $4 to park, but get beach access for free. Non-resident senior permits would be $55, while parking and beach access would be $4 and $1, respectively. A single resident permit would be $110 and resident families would pay $130 for a permit. Both groups would pay the same as non-resident seniors for parking and beach access.

Families with a gold or platinum permit would pay $190 and $335, respectively, but platinum permit holders would  get parking and beach access for free, while gold permit holder would only have to pay $4 for parking. 

The park would also raise parking fees for non-permit holders, according to the proposal. Residents would pay $8 to park on the weekdays, $9 to park on weekends and $12 to park on holidays.

For non-residents, the fees would be higher--$10 for weekday parking, $12 for weekends and $20 for holidays.

Some members of the commission, like Rye Brook Mayor Joan Feinstein, weren't satisfied with the pricing differential between residents and non-residents.

"I still would like to see more of a differentiated pricing for residents and non-residents," she said. "I would like to see it go up to $15, [that] would be my recommendation." 

Bishop Nowotnik, confidential secretary to Rye Town Supervisor Joseph Carvin, said the park would net an additional $24,000 in revenue if it charged non-residents $15 instead of $12 for weekend parking.

Benedict Salanitro, a commissioner for the Town of Rye, suggested raising permit fees by the same percentage as non-permit fees.

Rye Town Park ran a $90,000 deficit in 2009, but Nowotnik said the focus is on increasing parking fees for non-permit holders because the park has only generated a small amount of revenue from permit fees. Last year, it sold 745 permits, which generated $79,000 in revenue. About 91 percent of Rye Town's parking revenue comes from non-permit holders. 

Rye Mayor Doug French unveiled his own recommendations for dealing with parking issues. 

French suggested that the commission consider restricting as many cars as possible along the northwest section of the duck pond along Forest Avenue, restricting sections along Rye Beach Avenue and encouraging people to use public transportation to get to the park.

French also suggested instituting tighter management controls and technology to to improve cash collections at the park, such as implementing ticket spitters, online registration and allowing the use of credit cards. 

He also said the commission should consider a fee reduction for evening parking and for patrons of Seaside Johnnie's.

John Ambrose, the owner of Seaside Johnnie's, who spoke at Tuesday's meeting, said he had reservations about the proposed fee increases.

"I don't want to talk about parking with every customer that comes in," Ambrose said. "In this economy, bumping up the prices is a very perilous situation." 

"I just think there's got to be a better situation. The idea of going to $15 on the weekend, I just can't grasp it," he added.  "I don't think there's a person here who would pay $10 Monday through Friday to have lunch at a restaurant." 

In addition to the discussion about parking, Rye Town Park Director Gioffre also outlined the park's safety plan for this year.

Some features of the plan include using ropes and posts to separate parking and driving areas, using reflective signs for speed limit and traffic direction, using park staff to monitor the safety of vehicles and pedestrians along Dearborn and Forest avenues during peak traffic times, and carrying out a traffic flow study to determine the safest approach to overflow parking.

At Tuesday's meeting, the commission passed a resolution to undertake the latter measure. It is issuing a request for proposals to get professional engineering services to generate three options for improving traffic flow at the park.

The  commission also has scheduled a community walk through of the park on April 17 at 1o a.m. to get residents' input about ways to improve traffic conditions.