Lock It Down

Businesses and residents have been in conversation with local leaders for decades — actual decades — about parking shortages and general traffic issues in downtown Sag Harbor. That is one of a handful of reasons the village needs to push forward with plans for the parking lot at the site of the National Grid gas ball property at Bridge and Water streets, securing a long-term lease, if not an agreement to purchase.

Bay Street Theater also has been eying the property and even secured a letter of support of its efforts from Sag Harbor Village Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy — a letter she withdrew as the village began to pursue its own long-term lease of the property when that recently became an option.

The village has used the lot for long-term parking for several years; in the summer, it is often full, evidence of how valuable an asset it is and how essential those parking spaces are for local businesses and the residents who fill them.

While we are supportive of Bay Street Theater’s efforts to finally have a permanent home at the nearby Long Island Avenue property that houses 7-Eleven, losing dozens of public parking spaces to a nonprofit or private entity would have a potentially devastating impact on already stressed infrastructure. It can’t happen.

It is also time, if the village succeeds in locking down that space for public parking, to transform the lot into something more inviting and manageable than the current gravel lot. Perhaps it should be considered in the village’s paid parking discussion, which could offset the cost of any lease for taxpayers, though it also would make sense to provide residents and businesses with discounts for its use.

If a long-term lease became a reality, village officials would have the opportunity to explore all of the options for the property — perhaps even a larger parking facility? — as they continue to explore ways to ease the traffic and parking concerns that have plagued Sag Harbor for as long as most of us can remember.

And, frankly, with trustees considering zoning code changes that include expanding retail into the office district — which was created on the outskirts of Main Street with the goal of directing office uses off Main Street — this parking becomes even more valuable. Retail uses demand more parking than office uses. Opening the door for more retail means doing everything possible to preserve the parking already in place.

At the end of the day, there is no doubt that everyone hopes for a long-term solution and a permanent home for Bay Street Theater. But this parking lot is simply too valuable — and necessary — for the Village Board to let it slip through its hands.