November 4, 2010
By Ken Tarbous
Many residents are thrilled to have the new A&P Fresh supermarket in the Village Shopping Center, but for some residents, navigating around the parking lot is proving to be a difficult task.
Residents say they love the downtown location and have even been able to find parking spots. But the spots they're finding in the busy area are giving them longer walks to the store than they were used to when the Acme market was in the shopping center. Residents with small children, however, say they're struggling to deal with narrow driving lanes and a lack of traffic signs, among other concerns.
"I think it's a mess. I think it's dangerous for people. It's dangerous for the cars," said Erin Skotarczak, a mother of three who has lived in the borough for a little more than a year. "There are so many ways to get in and out of that lot. I just don't think there's any rhyme or reason to that lot. It's just very dangerous."
Adding to the confusing flow of traffic are the multiple parking lots behind McGrath's Hardware, M&M Liquors, Colorado Snow & Skate, and adjacent to Ferdinand Jewelers that feed into the Village Shopping Center. Drivers often use the South Street entrances and exits for those lots to access the center's lot.
Also fueling residents' frustration is the noticeable absence of corrals to catch carts left behind by shoppers. And in recent months, contractors' vehicles and garbage containers have crowded spaces near the free-standing building that houses Braunschweiger Jewelers. Smashburger, a Colorado-based restaurant chain, will open in the building this winter, bringing additional traffic into the parking lot. This Monday, an Allstate Insurance office will open its doors in the shopping center.
Councilman J. Brooke Hern said that spaces will be harder to get as time goes by and that the lot's configuration needs to be addressed to improve safety as more tenants move in.
"The parking situation is obviously bad. There is not really much that can be done to turn back the clock and achieve what would have been the right result, which would have been not to build that building [housing Braunschweiger Jewelers] in the center," said Hern, who is the Republican candidate for mayor in this year's election. "It really is a situation, I think, the town is just going to be living with, and it's going to get worse if and when those empty stores get filled."
For his part, the owner of the Village Shopping Center, Larry Paragano, is actively pursuing solutions to the traffic flow and safety problems, according to the center's property manager.
"We're going to tweak the flow of traffic from in front of the Investors Bank down through the cleaners. We're going to make that one way. We're going to put up a stop sign to impede some of the traffic," said Bill Woods, chief operating officer of Hazelwood Management Inc., which runs the Village Shopping Center for Paragano. "The actual traffic flow is now going to be refined. We didn't know what it was going to be until the A&P was open. We now see how the traffic is flowing. It's still a work in progress."
The owner will ask the borough Planning Board on Nov. 9 for explicit permission to add stop signs, make lanes one ways, add cart corrals, and perform other adjustments to the lot. Rather than go ahead with the work immediately, Woods said, the owner wants to avoid any bureaucratic hassles during or after the work.
In 2005, the borough changed its parking ordinance at the request of business owners, easing the number of parking spaces required per square foot at each store. In 2007 and 2008, when Paragano received approvals to expand the supermarket space and put up the "outbuilding" where Braunschweiger Jewelers is located, the town gave the center two variances to allow for fewer parking spaces.
Some downtown business owners say part of the parking problem is that the downtown district has reached its limit for land available parking, with little space for further expansion.
But Woods said he doesn't believe shoppers will have a problem finding places to park. He pointed out that approximately 130 of the center's 350 parking spots are behind the stores, accessible through two walkways, one next to Aladdin Cleaners and the other between Village Pet Center and the A&P.
Shoppers who have been frequenting the new supermarket agree there are plenty of spaces available.
"I am pleasantly surprised with how easy it has been to get a spot," said resident Ali Solomon. "Obviously, this might be temporary as new businesses file in, but for now no complaints."
Whether there are enough parking spaces to meet demand in peak parking periods, such as Christmas shopping season, is still being debated.
"I live in town and am in the new grocery store a least three times a week, and I have yet to have to circle to find a spot," said resident Kate Forbes. "I am sure it will get even busier as the new stores open, but it is great to see downtown thrive."
Mayor John Thoms, who has been in contact with Woods over safety concerns at the lot, said professional parking studies by the borough and Paragano found that the current number of parking space, including those behind the buildings, were found to adequate.
"Can people park right in front of the store like when they used to go to the old Acme, run into the place and then come right out and leave? No, they can't do that anymore because this is a popular shopping center now," said Thoms, who was elected mayor as a Republican but is running for re-election this year as an independent. "So they're going to park a little further away, but it's all within the confines of the center. So, far it's working."
The Village Shopping Center and its parking issues have a long history. The center was built in the early 1960s, and fell into what residents and business people call a state of disrepair over a 20-year period that culminated with the Acme supermarket leaving the center in summer of 2006. Paragano then began plans for his $6 million renovation of the center.
There also has been a long, ongoing dispute over the tangle of access to the parking lots behind buildings on South Street and Springfield Avenue and which customers use those lots. There has been an unofficial arrangement between the nearly dozen property owners along South and Springfield and Paragano to allow people to park in any lot regardless of where they shop. But under that arrangement the costs to maintain lots, clear snow, and meet other expenses are unfairly borne more by some businesses rather than others, owners in the area say.
Bill Ferdinand, the chairman of the New Providence Business and Professional Association's Downtown Improvement District and the co-owner of Ferdinand Jewelers on South Street, said an effort to form a single, consolidated parking lot fell apart a few years ago and that talks on reaching a formal, cooperative parking agreement have stalled.
Part of the difficulty in getting all sides to agree have been issues relating to two businesses, Feathers Hair Specialists and Avenue Deli on Springfield Avenue, that do not have their own parking lots and concerns over the large number of customers of Springfield Avenue and South Street businesses parking in the Village Shopping Center lot.
"What I would like to do, at some point, is possibly work something out with all the landlords and people on South Street," said Ferdinand said, who helped run the Downtown Improvement District's parking study. "Whatever is good for the town is going to be good for us."
Woods said the shopping center's owner would like to resolve the parking issues to the benefit of all the businesses in the area.
"We want to get a cooperative solution for all this downtown," Woods said. "We haven't seen any progress made since 2007, but now that the center is getting repopulated quickly [with new businesses] we're looking to have a solution that works for everybody downtown."
Meanwhile, business owners are celebrating a reinvigorated downtown shopping district which has been enjoying a renaissance of sorts since the renovation and in the brief time the new supermarket has been open.
"This shopping center's a huge upgrade. It's a huge part of the downtown, " said Bill Braunschweiger, owner of Braunschweiger Jewelers, who sees the need for adjustments in the parking lot. "This is as good as the place has looked since it was basically brand new in the mid-'60s, and it was a long time coming. It was truly an eyesore."
