Submitted rendering from City of Batavia
Batavia city management sent out a new parking plan Tuesday for the downtown police station staging area in the parking lot at Alva Place and Bank Street.
A dozen business owners have been without parking adjacent to their offices on the south side alongside the parking lot for the last three weeks, and some have complained to city management, City Council, local media and through a petition circulating on change.org. Those owners have been losing patients and/or getting cancellations and no-show appointments due to the safety issues and inconvenience of parking, they have said.
"Over the past two weeks, City leadership has held several meetings with the construction team and its project representatives, to find options that will allow for use of a portion of the City owned lot on Alva and Bank streets for customers of the adjacent businesses, while still allowing for the Police Station building project to be completed to the scale and scope originally intended,” City Manager Rachael Tabelski said in a letter to Washington Avenue and State Street businesses. “Providing patients and customers access to local businesses is a key priority for the City. This past week, the City issued an emergency change directive to replace the current and proposed configuration of the safety fencing.
"To develop a positive solution, it is important to remember that both sides will have to compromise along the way," she said. "I am pleased to share the results of the change directive. In addition to added sidewalks, striping of the adjacent City streets, as well as an added ramp in the existing parking lot, the site safety fence will be moved in two different phases as outlined below as construction proceeds."
There will be two phases to open up a first row of parking by mid-June, which was requested by the business owners for their older patients and those with disabilities. Phase I will begin under emergency necessity, she said, pending approval of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is the department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development and food.
The entire plan is available HERE.
“Please encourage your staff to park in the JC Penney lot across Alva Place. We also encourage you to share this parking plan with your customers,” Tabelski said. “We will keep you apprised as plans for both phases move forward. Thank you for your patience as the construction project proceeds.”
Submitted rendering by City of Batavia.
