The Manhasset Park District will make available 30 additional commuter spaces in its Hillside Avenue parking lot starting on Thursday, officials said.
In a letter published in this week’s Manhasset Times, park district commissioners said the new spaces are the first major expansion to commuter parking in nearly 30 years as well as the first of several upcoming initiatives that will address the scarcity of parking in Manhasset’s downtown area.
“The Manhasset Park District will continue to serve the community and pursue options and ideas to help the challenging parking issues of the community,” the park district’s commissioners wrote in a joint statement.
Commuters can access the Hillside Avenue lot only from Plandome Road, with exits south onto Hillside Avenue or west onto Myrtle Street. The top third portion of the lot will remain reserved solely for merchant parking, officials said.
Additionally, the Town of North Hempstead announced on Friday the availability of three new roadside parking spots on Hillside Avenue, adjacent to the park district’s lot.
“This is a great benefit for shoppers and should increase traffic in stores for business owners,” said North Hempstead Councilwoman Anna Kaplan, who represents parts of Manhasset in the town’s fourth district.
The project, town officials said, came together in conjunction with the Plandome Road Parking Committee, which meets each month to identify areas of Manhasset’s downtown area where new parking could be added.
The town in December approved the park district’s acquisition of the property at 61 Locust Street in Manhasset to clear a vacant house and create a new merchant lot that could accommodate up to 18 parking spaces.
North Hempstead residents have said the district lots do not accommodate enough spaces for commuters utilizing the Manhasset Long Island Railroad station, which is one of the few in the area that connects riders directly to Manhattan’s Penn Station.
During the question-and-answer portion of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth’s State of the Town address in late January, Village of East Hills Mayor Michael Koblenz suggested the town explore building a commuter parking garage to accommodate more people living in other areas who take the train out of Manhasset.
Bosworth replied that she did not yet know enough about the parking situation in Manhasset but understood the concerns of those who difficulty finding a space.
She added more “out-of-the-box solutions” may be necessary, such as a program that would let commuters park at their local LIRR stops and take shuttle buses to the Manhasset station.
