Mayor Corradino said residents and business owners could help by contacting state officials.
By: Audrey Levine
Legislation from the state is now the borough’s best hope for reinstating some of the 36 parking spaces that were eliminated on Main Street, according to engineers from the state Department of Transportation, who visited Manville Wednesday.
"The DOT wanted to see what Manville residents are experiencing," said Mayor Angelo Corradino. "They had said not to take action until we heard from them after the walk-through."
According to Mayor Corradino, DOT engineers took an inventory of the eliminated parking spaces on Wednesday to see if they had been properly lined and if it would be possible, under Title 39, to give some back to the business owners.
Title 39 states that parking spaces cannot be placed across from intersections.
"They found that it doesn’t appear the county made any mistakes in striping the spaces," Mayor Corradino said.
He said the engineers explained that a borough does have the right to monitor its own spaces, so long as they are legal, but, according to Title 39, the ones on Main Street are not. The only way to circumvent the problem, they said, would be to work on changing or adding legislation at the state level to allow the addition of more parking in the area.
An initial resolution to petition the Somerset County Board of Freeholders to re-stripe parking spaces, which was discussed Monday and removed after a motion by Councilwoman Kathryn Quick, said that the council does not believe restoring the 36 eliminated parking spaces would jeopardize the traffic flow or the residents in any way.
In addition, it explained that the loss of the spaces has been a great inconvenience for business owners and customers throughout Manville.
"We want to help the businesses to get as many spaces back as possible," Mayor Corradino said. Still, he said, now that they have spoken to the DOT, the borough will not reintroduce the resolution.
The spaces were originally eliminated in July by Somerset County which owns Main Street, also known as county Route 533 seven months after the road was repaved. The elimination of the spaces, all located in front of Manville businesses, was done in accordance with Title 39.
About 40 residents present at Monday’s Borough Council meeting, some Main Street business owners, spoke about their need for some kind of resolution to the problem and more parking to accommodate customers. Many questioned what the borough is doing to fix the situation, especially in light of the resolution being tabled.
"It would have been nice if the borough sent a letter to let people know that the spaces might be taken away," said Jan Chwiedosiuk, from the European Deli on South Main Street.
Other residents questioned whether parking can be added in the Rustic Mall, possibly by moving the fence back, but Mayor Corradino said the creosote cleanup is not yet complete and will not be finished until early 2008.
In the meantime, Mayor Corradino said, the best way for residents and business owners to help is to contact New Jersey officials, including Gov. Jon Corzine and Assemblyman Peter Biondi, R-Hillsborough.
"We’re all on the same team, but we have to go about this legally," Mayor Corradino said.
Mayor Corradino said this is also the next step for the borough, as was discussed with DOT engineers. Rather than lobbying the county, he said, it was suggested that the borough begin speaking to Assemblyman Chris Bateman, R-Branchburg, Mr. Biondi and other legislators to try to change rulings in the state that could allow Main Street to reinstate some of its parking.
"We are going to lobby them to help," he said. "We will look for DOT grants, maybe look into adding pocket parking lots in open space. This has been the first step and now we want to give some relief to the businesses."