NUMC Resurfacing Project Could Help Alleviate Parking Woes

While residents and Town of Hempstead officials continue discussing details of a parking permit/restriction program for residential streets near Nassau University Medical Center, a resurfacing project at the former site of the medical center's parking garage will make way for hundreds of additional parking spots possibly by year's end.

According to NUMC spokeswoman Shelley Lotenberg, the project is supposed to begin this month and "hopefully" be finished before 2014.

"The parking garage has recently been demolished to make way for several hundred additional spots once that area is resurfaced," Lotenberg told Patch Wednesday.

"It is expected that the availability of these additional spots will further encourage our employees and visitors to park within the campus as we aim to continue being a good corporate neighbor, sensitive to the concerns of our community."

Lotenberg added, "NuHealth will continue to do its part to increase on-campus parking capacity so that everyone who desires to park on campus can do so, when they need to do so.”

The parking garage was demolished in 2011 after engineers inspected the structure and recommended the medical center close all access to the ramp garage as of July 1, 2011.

At meetings with residents in both 2012 and 2013, NuHealth president/CEO Arthur Gianelli provided updates on the resurfacing of several lots on the medical center campus; 380 spots became available for employees and visitors as a result of tearing down several old buildings as well as paving over a couple of grassy areas near the old ramp garage, the power plant in the rear of the campus and an area east of the emergency department on Hempstead Turnpike, Lotenberg said.

After residential complaints persisted, Town officials concluded that "chronic monopolization of on-street parking spaces" by NUMC employees and visitors "caused a distinct lack of on-street parking for residents of that area, adjacent to their homes."

The Town pursued state legislation that allows for the implementation of parking restrictions along certain roadways. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Kemp Hannon and Assemblyman Tom McKevitt and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on July 31, lets the Town govern the "times of day when the permit will apply and provisions to protect some short-term parking."

Town of Hempstead officials held a meeting Monday with residents at NUMC to focus on final recommendations for the parking permit/restriction program.

According to Town of Hempstead press secretary Susan Trenkle-Pokalsky, the meeting was held to "make sure residents knew what was going on and get their input."

Final decisions will not be made until a public hearing is held. The Town Board has not yet fixed a date for that public hearing.