The city of Oneonta has reviewed four requests for handicapped parking spaces, with alternate side parking on city streets among the considerations.
The locations are 42 Maple St., 21 Otsego St., on Dietz Street at the entrance to the Dietz Street Lofts building and in the Dietz Street parking lot.
On Oct. 30, the Common Council’s Quality of Life and Infrastructure Committee differentiated between the two requests made for spots in front of houses and the two requests for spots at Dietz Street.
City officials said that homeowners requested locations on Maple Street and Otsego Street near their houses.
The spot on Dietz Street was a suggestion from someone who is neither a Lofts resident nor a disabled person, but the other request came from someone who wants spots in the Dietz Street parking lot closer to the Lofts.
City Administrator Greg Mattice said that although there are guidelines about how many handicapped parking spaces are required in business parking lots, the city doesn’t have policies about creating on-street handicapped parking spaces, however regulations do exist for city-owned parking lots.
The city code includes a list of all current locations of handicapped parking spaces on public streets.
Council member Len Carson, R-Fifth Ward, asked whether the city could require that the handicapped spots on the residential streets be renewed, annually or biannually, so the city knows when the disabled resident moves out.
Council member Scott Harrington said requesters should keep in mind a handicapped parking space doesn’t make a personal parking spot.
“Once you put a handicapped sign up, anybody [with a permit] can park there,” he said.
Council member David Rissberger, D-Third Ward, said that in the past neighbors have tried to have a those spots removed.
He also said there is a lack of regulations about how to justify granting handicapped spots, which makes it hard to be objective.
“Do we want to start giving out or putting random handicapped parking spots in the city?” he said.
The proposal to create a handicapped parking spot on Dietz Street didn’t gain much traction.
Mattice said that Dietz Street out is all-day parking, which may change, but behind the building is intended for long-term parking.
Currently, there are six handicapped parking spaces in the Dietz Street parking lot, two of which are behind the Lofts building. The four others are in northern section of the lot.
The Lofts have eight units that are ADA-accessible.
“Since that’s a residential building, it may very well be that two is not enough,” Rissberger said, “but management needs to be contacted. The residents should go through management to put in the request and not come directly to the city.”
That way, the building manager can put in one request for all the spots.
The three on-street parking requests were referred to the Legislative Committee for further review and discussion of the process, however the requests were not discussed at the Nov. 13 meeting.
The Quality of Life and Infrastructure Committee met Monday, Nov. 27 and continued discussion on the parking spot requests.
City Public Works Director Chris Yacobucci said that he and Mattice met with Dietz Street Lofts management. Since the building’s main entrance is from the parking lot side, and there is no main public access to the Lofts from Dietz Street, they didn’t think the handicapped parking spot on Dietz Street would be beneficial to them.
Yacobucci said that the Dietz Street parking lot needs seven spots to meet ADA standards based on the number of spots in the lot.
Mattice said that based on anecdotal observation of handicapped spot use in that lot, there is justification to add one space in the south section of the lot.
Yacobucci said that the sign can be established now, but the line painting won’t be done until spring.
For the two parking spot requests on Maple and Otsego streets, the committee decided to research policies in other cities to help inform guidelines for Oneonta.