Parking fee idea draws knock on piazza plan

A Glen Cove proposal to charge parking fees to new downtown businesses requiring extra parking led one council member to express his disgruntlement with the controversial Village Piazza development and say the fee proposed for it was too low.

City officials at a public hearing Tuesday discussed rates for the so-called Payment in Lieu of Parking program, or PILOP, which they said was meant to raise revenue for the city without hurting small businesses.

Businesses needing municipal garage space for their customers would be charged a one-time fee, said officials who have proposed that the first four spaces be free, the fifth through 25th spaces be $750 each and every space after that be $1,750.

The revenue would go into an account for maintaining and building city facilities, Mayor Ralph Suozzi said. The fee "isn't meant to be punitive, it's meant to be supplemental," he added.

Officials have proposed that the Village Piazza, a $60-million mixed-use project, pay about $200,000 for its spaces. Councilman Reginald Spinello said that may be too low.

"The developer, I believe, owes something to the city," he said Tuesday.

Spinello added that he thought the project as proposed, with an existing unacquired building detracting from the piazza effect, "shortchanged the people."

He said Wednesday he has not decided what the parking fee should be.

"We have to talk about it a lot more," Spinello said of the City Council. "We have to do it so we hurt no one, but at the same time, the city is entitled to some compensation."

Suozzi Wednesday said he disagreed with the "shortchanged" characterization, saying the parking fee should not target the piazza. "It isn't about the piazza, it's about the downtown," he said.

Representatives for developer Michael Puntillo could not be reached to comment Wednesday.The public hearing will be continued on June 26.