SOUTH RIVER – The Borough Council has adopted an ordinance amending South River’s zoning code to establish a Parking in Exchange for Payment (PEP) program.
“The PEP Program will allow businessmen with properties downtown to improve and expand them, providing a more robust downtown business environment. Currently, to get approvals for their projects, parking spaces may be required in the plan. With a PEP program, the businessmen can pay a fee to the parking utility and have the utility expand parking availability,” council President Shawn Haussermann said.
South River officials will apply to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board for approval and establishment of a dedicated trust fund for deposit of all PEP contributions collected under the ordinance. The fund will be known as the Parking Improvement Plan Trust Fund. The chief financial officer will be the financial administrator of the fund, according to the council.
With a 5-1 vote, council members adopted the ordinance to establish a PEP program on Sept. 10.
Councilwoman Sandra Adelino, Councilman John Alai, Councilman Ryan Jones, Councilman Julie Meira and Haussermann voted “yes” on a motion to adopt the ordinance. Councilman James Gurchensky voted “no” on the motion.
Gurchensky said he voted no because, “I don’t see it as a solution to the problem. I actually see it as compounding a problem a little bit because they are leaving it up to the borough to establish a trust fund for the parking utility to expand on it.
“Financially it does not equate to me because they are charging what they are going to receive to purchase land possibly in the future. They are going to have to sell a lot of parking spaces to build up this trust fund. Basically, I think it should be put upon the developers so that if they desire to make some type of obligation other than [passing] off to the borough to say, ‘OK we will put it in a trust fund and it will be their borough,’ ” he said.
Gurchensky said that during the day, residents have to pay for metered parking along the Main Street corridor, however, after a certain time parking is free.
“There are quite a few residents along the Main Street corridor and … there are some businesses and to accommodate the business parking is a bit of an issue. Unfortunately, the borough only has the one parking lot that is behind the Main Street area … but there are a lot of [stores] and eating establishments and what have you that could use the parking, and it doesn’t seem to move as frequently as it should,” he said.
“It seems like the metered parking is the only resolve to it. … There is very much a lack of parking spaces available because being an old town and the way it’s segmented up there are multiple small parcels of properties that have businesses. It is hard for somebody to establish parking for employees, so it really presents a problem,” Gurchensky said.
The PEP contribution fee for each parking space will be calculated as follows: one to 10 parking spaces will cost $3,600 per space; 11 or more parking spaces will cost $4,000 per space, according to the council. All PEP contribution fees will be collected by the CFO for deposit in the trust fund.
The fees will provide for the capital costs of buying, building and maintaining parking infrastructure; parking and feasibility studies; land acquisition through purchase or condemnation; construction or erection of off-street parking structures, installation of parking equipment, lighting, drainage, landscaping, parking utilities, communications or security equipment; closing costs resulting from property acquisition; and similar capital project development costs directly associated with the development of municipal parking infrastructure, according to the council.
For more information about the PEP Program, visit www.southrivernj.org/agendas/council/.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].