New parking rules possible at Merrick LIRR station

Hempstead Town officials plan to consider reserving parking spaces for town residents at the Long Island Rail Road’s station in Merrick.

The Hempstead Town board has scheduled a public hearing on the possibility of a resident-only permit-parking program at the Merrick station, which has more than 1,500 spaces. The meeting is planned for Feb. 18 during the board’s 10:30 a.m. meeting in the Nathan L.H. Bennett Pavilion, adjacent to Hempstead Town Hall, at 1 Washington St.

The original hearing was scheduled for Nov. 13, 2012, but was adjourned after superstorm Sandy greatly affected the town.

The hearing will consider revising public parking fields in Merrick to adopt one stop sign, one sign with a 12-hour time limit, three commuter parking field resident permit signs enforceable from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and 10 commuter parking field resident permit required signs.

Community leaders had been asking town officials for several years to implement permit parking at the Merrick and Bellmore train stations.

The town unveiled a new resident-only pilot permit-parking program at the Bellmore station in September 2012. At that station, officials reserved 227 out of 1,833 spaces for town residents with permits.

The permits were created to prevent nonresidents from parking in town maintained commuter lots.

Under the program being considered for Merrick, identical to Bellmore’s, a parking sticker issued by the town clerk’s office would cost $3 a year and allow commuters living in the town to park in spaces reserved for permit parking only. Parking without a permit in a municipal lot that requires a permit can result in a total fine of $120.