Town Board Approves Parking Study

A Huntington Village Parking Consortium Group has been established to reexamine parking needs in downtown Huntington.

The Town of Huntington Economic Development Corporation, the Huntington Business Development District, the Huntington Township and The Theater LLC have all concurred that significant more parking is required to meet growing demand, according to Town officials.

Each agency, and the Town of Huntington, will pay $7,906 of the $39,530 feasibility study costs to Nelson Nygaard Consulting Associates, of New York, N.Y., which specializes in parking management and planning.

The Huntington Town Board unanimously approved the agreement with the Huntington Village Consortium Group and Nelson Nygaard at a regular meeting last week.

At the meeting, Huntington resident Michael Kornfeld said he had concerns about the construction of parking garage downtown.

"I just hope that whatever you do in terms of this study, and in terms of building of any kind of parking structure, that you take the concern of the community and think about it and not ram through a multi-story parking garage as they did in places like Glenn Cove ... that are seldom used," Kornfeld said.

Petrone said one of the reasons the group is coming on is to solve a parking problem and explore other possibilities.

"The idea is not to go into this to build a garage, the idea is to stay away from this as long as possible," Petrone said.

The study will be used by the Town to assist in assessing parking conditions in the downtown Huntington area, to determine the market value of a parking space in the area and the economical feasibility of constructing, maintaining and operating a proposed parking structure.