BUFFALO, N.Y. — A proposal has been submitted to the Buffalo Common Council that would not only increase rates at parking meters and pay stations in the City of Buffalo, but also extend the hours for which you'd have to feed them.
Opponents to the plan claim it came out of nowhere.
"I'm very frustrated by this proposal," Delaware District council member Joel P. Feroleto said regarding the measure being introduced by Fillmore District council member Mitch Nowakowski.
It would raise the rate you pay for street parking on a graduated scale, up to a maximum of eight hours, whereby the longer you stay the more you would pay, according to Feroleto.
"So instead of $1 an hour, it would be $2 per hour for the first couple hours on up to the last couple of hours where it goes to $5 per hour," he said.
In addition, not only would the hours subject to fees be extended, from the current 5 p.m. cutoff to 10 p.m., but parkers would also be required to pay on Saturdays, a day where street parking is currently free.
Of particular concern to Feroleto, however, is an additional measure where the affected "parking district" (which currently encompasses the downtown area) would be expanded to include the Elmwood and Hertel Avenue business districts, both of which are in his council district.
"I think this proposal for Hertel and Elmwood is absurd," Feroleto said.
"It is a very bad idea," said Thomas Eoannou, an attorney who also owns the North Park Theatre on Hertel.
According to Eoannou, charging for parking after 5 p.m. and on Saturdays when most people attend movies, and would be therefore parked for several hours, would be disastrous for the North Park Theatre.
"You are doubling the cost of a ticket," he said. "People aren't going to go to the North Park, they're going to the mall where there is free parking instead."
He also worries about the merchants he leases space to in his 15 other Hertel Avenue properties, who are small businesses owners facing skyrocketing costs for labor, taxes, insurance, and other expenses ... and who he says can't afford to lose customers.
"These outrageous parking increase proposals would be a death knell for these small business. They just can't take it," he said.
"I don't think it makes any sense," said Nick Kotrides, the owner of Cluck Cluck Moo Moo, and who has restaurants on both Elmwood and Hertel.
"Are we just trying to create more empty storefronts?" he asked. "We're competing with a lot of other commercial districts ... in Williamsville you can be on Main Street you don't have to pay the meter. If we don't have people coming into the city utilizing our street parking we might as well shut our doors."
Additionally, Kotrides worries that if fees are charged for parking at night it will force the Hertel Avenue bar crowd to seek parking on residential side streets and disturb homeowners.
"The people that live in this neighborhood support us and we need to support them as well," he said.
"Our city should be helping them bring people into their businesses, not causing them to go elsewhere," Eoannou said. "And that's the only thing that this is going to do."
"I don't see any positive aspect of this or how this could benefit the residents of Buffalo and the small businesses on Hertel and Elmwood at all," Feroleto said.
2 On Your Side reached out to Council member Nowakowski, who is submitting the legislation. However, an aide told us he was reserving comment until it appears before the council's finance committee next Tuesday. He also indicated the measure was being submitted at the behest of the Brown Administration, whose parking commissioner, Ray Wagner, did not respond to a phone message we left seeking comment.