Photos by Howard Owens
Imagine that you return from work to find that a couple of people have parked their cars in your driveway. You don’t know them, and you cannot fathom why they’d just decide to leave their two-ton possessions on your property for a few to several hours.
Now move this scenario onto the property at the former Kmart parking lot at Lewiston and Park roads in Batavia. Benderson Development Corporation owns the space, and rented it out to Batavia Downs for its summer concerts from June through August, reverting it back to a no-parking zone once the season was over.
Signs have been posted and chain barriers have been put up, to no avail. People have persistently ignored the signs and even boldly moved the chains to park in the lot anyway, Steve Grice says.
Yes, people have been blatantly parking in someone’s private driveway. It happens at other locations as well, he said, but it's usually one or two vehicles versus several that end up at the Kmart lot.
If you think that Benderson is being unreasonable about its policy, there’s valid reason for it, Grice said. Last winter a motorist parked in the lot and allegedly tried to file a damaged vehicle claim. All bets were off — and a stricter no parking policy was attempted through signs with warnings that unauthorized vehicles would be towed away by Dan’s Tire & Auto.
That’s how Grice, the towing operations manager, got involved. It came to a head this Monday, when a dozen vehicles were illegally parked in the lot, and the development company could either have those motorists charged with trespassing or towed away, Grice said. "Twelve cars got towed," he said.
He has been getting complaints from people and wants everyone to know that “we’re just doing our job.”
“We want the public to know that we didn’t make the call,” Grice said Wednesday. “The property owner contacted us to do our job. As of today, we have not had any vehicles left beyond 24 hours.”
The fee for ignoring those posted signs is $233 for the first 24 hours, and $50 a day after that. Grice finds it hard to believe that “people are being disrespectful” of the policy just to walk across the road to Batavia Downs, especially when that facility offers free valet service.
Benderson Development did not return a call for comment.
Photos by Howard Owens
Photo by Howard Owens.
