CITY OF TONAWANDA: Young St. residents have a parking problem

By Dave Hill<br><a href="mailto:hilld@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Dave</a>
The Tonawanda News

July 25, 2008 11:10 pm

— For more than two decades, Kathy Marranca parked on Young Street and it was never a problem — until two months ago.
But what has been “legal” for years was recently brought to the attention of the City of Tonawanda Police Department, which is now enforcing it, leaving a handful of homeowners, including Marranca, in a sort of parking limbo while city leaders try to resolve the problem.
The issue is this: A few residents near Young and Scott streets don’t have driveways, and their properties aren’t large enough to install one. Still, parking was never problematic for them because they always parked along a grassy area on the odd-numbered side of Young Street, between the road and some fenced-in property.
In late May, they received letters from the police department telling them not to park there or they would be ticketed. It affects 11 vehicles altogether.
The residents brought their complaints to the Common Council in June and, ever since, city leaders have been trying to work out a solution. In the meantime, these residents have had to provide their vehicle information to police every two weeks so that they will not be ticketed while the mayor and Common Council try to resolve the matter.
The homeowners are growing increasingly frustrated as the issue drags on. Adding to their dismay is the fact that while some of them have been ticketed for parking on Young Street during the day, patrons of a nearby bar weren’t receiving tickets for parking there late at night.
“You can all chip in and buy my house, because it’s garbage to me,” Marranca told city leaders during a Common Council meeting earlier this week. “Tear it down. I can’t sell it. Who’s going to buy a house where you can’t park?”
It was the fourth meeting Marranca and some of her neighbors have attended since the issue arose. “I just feel it’s getting totally out of hand and nobody knows who to talk to to get it fixed,” Marranca told the Tonawanda News Thursday.
In May, a nearby property owner complained to police that he was finding beer bottles and hypodermic needles where the residents were parking. As it turns out, the property isn’t his — it’s a city-owned right-of-way, which means it’s illegal for any vehicles to park there.
“It’s illegal to park there and we have not been able to figure out a way to make it legal,” Council President Carleton Zeisz said
There are “No Standing” signs posted in the area, but that didn’t stop six people from parking there Thursday evening.
“If it’s illegal, why have they allowed it to go on for 20-some years?” Marranca asked. Police Chief Cindy Young said it was never an issue until a few months ago, but once it came to their attention, they couldn’t allow people to continue breaking a city ordinance.
Making matters worse for the residents, they can’t park on the nearest side road, Scott Street, because there’s no overnight parking on city streets.
One of Marranca’s neighbors, Kim Miller, moved to Tonawanda from Buffalo a year ago. She claims she was never told of the city’s ordinance on overnight parking, and she too has parked on Young Street for the past year. Now that she can’t park there, “I have a home that’s of no worth to me,” she said.
Miller has been paying a monthly fee to park down the street. The Marrancas are parking in a neighbor’s driveway on Scott Street.
The council met with the police chief after Tuesday night’s meeting to try and hammer out a solution, but none was reached. City officials have ruled out allowing on-street parking overnight, because of street sweeping operations in the summer and snow-plowing in the winter.
Young opposes it as well on the grounds that if a car is parked illegally, especially late at night, it means someone might be up to no good.
“You’d be amazed at how many illegal activities you find just from people being illegally parked somewhere,” the chief said, adding, “We’ll enforce whatever (the council) decides on.”
Some city leaders say the issue is compounded by the fact that state laws prohibit parking on a right-of-way, and they can’t permit overnight parking on Young Street because it wouldn’t be fair to residents on other city streets.
“It’s not an easy (problem) to deal with,” Mayor Ron Pilozzi said.
The city has proposed allowing the affected residents to park in the Department of Public Works lot on Fillmore, but it is a bit of a walk, and Marranca is leery of letting her daughter — who works at a local pharmacy from 7 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. — walk past two bars late at night. Marranca’s daughter has been ticketed twice for parking on the street.
Marranca has lived in her current home on Young Street for 14 years. Before that, she and her family lived farther down the road. Either way, for the past two decades, she’s parked on Young Street and it was never an issue.
She’s not only frustrated by what the recent no parking enforcement means for the future value of her home, but also because of the impact it has on family events.
Marranca had planned on holding her daughter’s high school graduation party at the house, but it will instead be in Buffalo because family and friends won’t have any place to park in Tonawanda. The same holds true for Marranca’s annual Christmas Eve celebration.
“It’s not fair, no matter how you look at it,” Marranca said of the situation. “It’s nerve-wracking. At some point before winter, I hope they have a solution.”
Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.

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