Hubbard proposes $1,500-per-apartment ‘payment in lieu of parking’ fee downtown

Developers of new apartments in downtown Riverhead will be assessed a one-time fee for each apartment built without the off-street parking required by town code if a proposal by the parking advisory committee is adopted by the town board.

Councilman Tim Hubbard, town board liaison to the parking district advisory committee, proposed requiring the developer of apartments in the downtown district to pay $1,500 per apartment if the developer cannot provide the number of off-street parking required by code for apartments built outside the parking district.

“It’s like purchasing a virtual parking space,” Hubbard said.

For properties outside the downtown parking district the code requires 1.5 parking spaces per apartment, Hubbard said. So if a developer were building 100 apartments and providing 50 on-site parking spaces instead of the required 150, the developer would be required to remit a $150,000 payment in lieu of parking. The property would still be subject to regular parking district taxes.

Currently the town code allows high-density residential development in the downtown district without requiring the developer to provide any off-street parking. With one apartment building under construction, two more proposed and the possibility of others still to come, downtown business owners and town officials are concerned about a looming parking crisis. Some business owners say parking is already a big problem.

“Honestly this is something that should have been done 10 years ago,” Hubbard said.

The town in 2004 amended the zoning code to allow the construction of up to 500 residential dwelling units in the Downtown Center-1 (Main Street) zoning use district. Maximum building height within the zoning district was also increased to 60 feet.

Those changes set up the current situation where high-density residential development without sufficient provision for parking is permitted within the parking district, a special tax district established in 1967 to tax properties within the district for the purpose of providing common parking. Development within the parking district is not required by code to provide off-street parking.

There was agreement of a majority of the board to move forward with the proposed “payment in lieu of parking” — or PILOP — for new residential dwelling units in the DC-1 zone. Board members discussed but reached no agreement on whether the PILOP should be capped.

Board members agreed proposals that have already gained final site plan approval would be exempted from the PILOP requirement. There are currently two large development projects in the site plan process: “Riverview Lofts” by Georgica Green Ventures, a 118-unit mixed use residential development with 60 parking spaces and a plan proposed by Metro Group on the former Sears site with 170 units and 118 parking spaces.

The 45-unit Peconic Crossing is already under construction. It will provide 42 parking spaces.

Summerwind Square (52 units, 2013) and Woolworth Revitalization (19 units, 2015) were built without providing any off-street parking.

The PILOP would be a way to raise money for the parking district, which does not have the funds to build new parking, Hubbard said.

“It’s woefully underfunded,” he said.

Hubbard also proposed assessing the PILOP on commercial spaces being converted from retail to restaurant uses, as the Village of Patchogue does.

Supervisor Sean Walter pointed out that Patchogue does not have a parking district and said he was concerned there might be legal issues with assessing a PILOP on current property owners. He advocated, and board members agreed, setting aside that part of the proposal for now.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, who is partner in Summerwind Square, has expressed concerns and objections about the new apartment buildings. Today she said developers of apartment buildings should be required to provide off-street parking to meet all their tenants needs.

Walter said that would be physically impossible downtown.

Hubbard told her, “I wish you would have said that five years ago when you put Summerwind up.”

That remark rankled the councilwoman, who shot back that “before Summerwind, there were prostitutes and drug deals and people shooting up there.”

“Let’s see, I was a cop then and I don’t recall it being like that,” Hubbard said.

“You were behind a desk,” Giglio answered.

Councilman James Wooten said Giglio’s proposal for parking would prevent the construction of new apartments downtown.

“I’m not going to kill your competition,” Wooten told her.

“You should recuse yourself,” Councilman John Dunleavy jumped in.

Walter stepped in and put a stop to the brewing squabble.

Giglio told RiverheadLOCAL in January that she intended to recuse herself from voting on these issues. “But I’m going to participate in the process because I have expertise in this. The new proposals are not really competitive with Summerwind,” she said. “Sometimes the appearance of a conflict can be worse than the actual conflict itself.”