Downtown parking options, recommendations

A four-story, 507-space parking deck, estimated to cost $10.3 million, will be the option pursued for Lot B. It will be a while, however, until it's built.

A downtown parking assessment commissioned by the Parking Authority presented five options for a parking garage on the Lot B site, ranging in size from 334 spaces to 507 spaces. Four of the five options were four stories high, only one was three stories and all of the options included some ground-floor retail. Tim Haahs Engineers Architects recommended two of the five options as most efficient and economical: Option 2, which cost $8.6 million to build 393 spaces, and Option 3, which cost $10.3 million for a 507-space deck. Both had the least expensive per-space cost among the five.

By all indications, The Savoy will move forward, Parking Authority Chairman Matt Dombrolowski said, and whoever eventually does The Westbury project, there will still be a need for parking to compliment any structure and parking needs. "We must plan smart and not plan just minimal and then regret we are lacking. Growth will eventually happen and so will need," he said. There is no timeline, however, for construction of a new parking deck as the authority is purusing land acquisition and funding sources. City Administrator Peter Pelissier has said funding would likely come from some combination of parking authority, city and/or developer fees.

Rates would be $100 monthly, $3 for up to two hours, and a flat $5 for events. The report estimates that commuters would purchase 165 permits by the 10th year of the deck, and other estimates on the number of monthly permits purchased by residents and retail at The Westbury and The Savoy.

Among the nine recommendations by Haahs were:
* Installation of parking meters along Main Street from Poplar to Emerson and other on-street parking areas to promote turnover and better manage vehicles abusing time limits.
* Consider increasing rates directly adjacent to the train station as the current $5 per day is regularly filled, indicating market demand.

Downtown parking assessment

I forked over $17.50 to the Parking Authority for a copy of the 45-page final downtown parking assessment by Blue Bell, Pa.-based Tim Haahs Engineers Architects, commissioned last year. I finally got to reviewing it and will present it in two posts: parking needs followed by recommendations tomorrow.

The report suggests a future parking shortage of about 343 spaces, or 508 spaces if the city accommodates all future transit users, over the next 10 years. The estimate, however, does not include building a deck on the site of the 65-space Lot B (located between Main and East Cherry streets), taking into account future or planned developments. The question remains when, or if, those future developments will come.

Parking inventory
There were 275 on-street parking spaces and 834 off-street spaces within the study area, not including private residences or businesses, for a total 1,109 parking spaces. The study area included St. Mary's lot, YMCA, Lot F (adjacent to RSI bank), Lot H (corner of West Milton Avenue and Broad Street), Lot B, Lewis Street deck, Lewis Street lot behind River Place. The Lewis Street parking deck accounts for 63 percent of off-street inventory.

Peak hour parking demand was 1 to 3 p.m., with 699 vehicles occupying the 1,109 spaces (63 percent). On-street parking was 55 percent occupied (152 spaces) and off-street parking was 66 percent (547 spaces) occupied. There's a surplus of about 355 spaces (245 off-street spaces, 71 on-street). During peak, two locations had occupancy of 80+ percent: YMCA lot (100%) and Lot F (82%). Eight on-street locations had 80+ percent occupancy with half at a full 100 percent occupied.

The report takes into account 455 future/planned residential units, with 252 parking spaces:
- The Savoy, 36 units, 22 spaces
- Station Place, 116/125
- The Westbury, 112/0
- Park Square, 159/205

The report also includes planned retail/office/restaurant space as follows:
- 20,700 office space at Westbury
- 19,200 retail/restaurant at Westbury
- 6,000 retail at The Savoy
- 6,320 retail at Park Square
31,520 total

Based on ratios for retail/restaurant and office space, and residential units, the report estimates an increase in demand of 114 spaces (800 space demand minus 686 planned spaces).

Follow Rahway Rising now on Twitter

Rahway Rising has joined the so-called Twittersphere starting tomorrow (July 1); follow us @RahwayRising on Twitter.

For as annoying as it can seem at times, Twitter does provide a rather unique service, particularly when you use it as a real-time search engine or breaking news (see Michael Jackson, but also see Jeff Goldblum). To tell the world what you're doing every hour of the day, not so much, but I think it can drive some newcomers (and a fair share of Twitter spammers, I'm sure) to the blog, which helps when your marketing budget is zero. You can even just check us out without creating an account or being a follower by using the search engine page.

It's not necessarily permanent. Like most everything on the blog, it's experimental, so we'll see how it works. Let me know what you think.

Furniture store wants to subdivide building

Planning Board members last week decided to hold off on an application to carve up a St. Georges Avenue site into four stores until they get more information.

Adidan Properties, LLC, of West New York, which owns 1713-1727 St. Georges Ave. (Block 210/Lot 9), is seeking to subdivide the space into a total of four commercial spaces. The one current tenant, Budget Furniture, would be among the four future tenants. Primarily for financial reasons, the owner and tenant compromised to relieve a hardship and subdivide the site, the applicant's attorney told the Planning Board last week.

The applicant is seeking approval for a minor site plan with bulk variances, including a parking variance because the property only has 22 spaces in the rear, off Union Street. Depending on the interpretation of the city code, the site would be required to provide anywhere from 29 to 49 spaces.

The building is about 9,700 square feet and among its neighbors are a hair salon, pizzeria and Chinese restaurant. The existing site does not meet parking requirements and does not have room to add more. The applicant's attorney argued that parking is a practical hardship and can be made an exception because it's not a substantial detriment to the area.

Planning Board members, however, raised concerns about parking, truck traffic and delivery areas and questioned the wisdom of subdividing into four commercial spaces, creating stores that are less than 13 feet wide. City Engineer James Housten had requested various documents and surveys for which the applicant sought waivers. Officials also reminded the board that the city has been to court multiple times about issues relating to the store's signage.

"This really needs to go back to the drawing board," said Planning Board Vice Chairman William Hering, with too many questions and unknowns. The attorney asked that the board consider the application and respect the landlord's judgment on the type of market that exists. The application is expected to come back to the board at its next meeting, July 28.

The property, at the corner of St. Georges and Union Street, is almost a half-acre, or almost 20,000 square feet, and is assessed at $490,000. Property taxes were about $23,300 last year and the property was acquired for $1.025 million in February 2004, according to Propertyshark.com.

Two-way traffic a year later: love it or hate it?

Not the sexiest of poll questions, but it'll give you something to do while you're visiting the site. Check out the new poll on the right side of the page (which was submitted by a reader!).

Remember when Irving and Main were both one-way streets? It's been just about a year since two-way traffic came to downtown -- what do you think?
- Love it!
- It's slowed down traffic for sure.
- What's with all the stop signs?
- Hate it!

There will be a couple of changes on the site coming Wednesday, keep an eye out. Thanks for reading.

Station Bar and Grill slated for Irving Street

Ever been to the Station Bar and Grill in downtown Garwood? Another one's coming to downtown Rahway.

The Planning Board last night unanimously approved a minor site plan for a vacant, one-story office building at 1530 Irving St., across from Park Square.

Principal Robert Destefanis hopes to have the restaurant operating by Thanksgiving at the earliest, describing the 6,900-square-foot restaurant as an upscale Charlie Brown's Steakhouse. He's owned and operated the Garwood eatery, formerly Robert's Steakhouse, since 1990.

Destefanis told the Planning Board he'd like to preserve as much of the old interior as possible, including tile ceilings and brick. Planning Board members had few concerns except for possible issues about an additional stairwell or exit, and a planned mezzanine in a rear event room, which might be considered a second floor depending on its size.

The property, about a third of an acre, was acquired in April 2006 for $525,000, according to propertyshark.com. Assessed at $205,000, the site paid about $9,750 in property taxes last year. Destefanis said the liquor license was acquired from the former Triangle Inn, which has become part of the Renaissance at Rahway development at East Grand Avenue and Monroe Street.

Riverview Manor taking shape

Excuse the recent hiatus, there have been a few things going on, between a side project, computer issues and fighting crime. It's officially summer too, so it's been a little slow, but there should be some new posts this week -- stay tuned.

For some photos, you'll see work progressing on Riverview Manor, the 13-unit townhomes on Lennington Street (above). The project broke ground about 14 months ago and here's what it looked like about four months ago.

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In other news, the plot on Central Avenue across from Berzenic Park will not be a petting zoo or pony rides (a good guess from readers though!), but a community garden. You can find some details in this press release from the city or this report last week.

Also, Rahway gets mentioned in this New York Times piece about the "roadblocks" faced by New Jersey's 20 Transit Villages, and the fact that some projects have stalled as a result of bank financing drying up (i.e., The Savoy).