Government

Update: New traffic pattern for Adams Street parking lot scrapped

(Update: 2 p.m.) — Village officials announced Wednesday a plan to reconfigure the Adams Street parking lot to prohibit vehicles from exiting onto Main Street will not move forward.

Greenport Village Mayor George Hubbard Jr. said in an interview Wednesday the decision was made after he met with village administrator Paul Pallas, engineering aide Derryl Baumer and contractors Tuesday morning to discuss the plan.

“We met with the contractor and several other people down there to look at it and it just doesn’t seem like it’s a viable option at this point to go ahead,” Mr. Hubbard said.

“At this point right now, trying to move the gazebo and reconfigure everything, it doesn’t make sense to spend the money on it right now. We’re going to try other options at another time.”

The mayor added the rest of the village’s construction project for Main Street will move forward.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The Adams Street parking lot in Greenport Village will undergo some changes soon that will prohibit vehicles from exiting onto Main Street.

The parking lot currently has two one-way sections: a one-way entrance on the north for vehicles coming from Main Street and a one-way exit on the south leading onto Main Street.

The latter exit will be eliminated, Mayor George Hubbard Jr. said during last Thursday’s Village Board meeting.

The change, which will be made in conjunction with other road and sidewalk projects in the village, will close off the southern exit onto Main Street and require all traffic to loop around and exit onto First Street, Mr. Hubbard said.

“It’s a bad spot,” he said of the current Main Street exit, adding that Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley had asked if the village could improve the traffic pattern there. “People are coming out of the parking lot, going east, and then they try to get back in from Main Street, going west, and they’re blocking traffic.”

Vehicles will still be able to enter the lot from First Street, where the road is one-way heading east.

The plan also involves moving the Rotary Club of Greenport’s gazebo about 20 feet to the west of its current location. That will permit vehicles parked in the southern portion of the lot to turn around and head west to the First Street exit.

Rotary Club of Greenport members raised concerns about whether the gazebo, which was built in the 1980s, could sustain a move.

“We hope it will,” Mr. Hubbard said, adding that the village will do everything necessary to protect the structure.

The Rotary also placed a plaque on the ground next to the gazebo honoring former member V.J. Clark-Brown, according to member Joe Cherepowich. The plaque will also be relocated.

Former Greenport utilities director Bill Swiskey described the village’s plan as “starting a traffic nightmare.” He added that there’s a stop sign less than 100 feet from the parking lot exit onto First Street.

In May, the village authorized a bond of up to $800,000 for reconstruction of various roads, parking areas, sidewalks and curbs in the village. Village administrator Paul Pallas said no additional approvals or expenses are needed to add the Adams Street parking lot work.

The bond project includes widening a section of Main Street between Bay and Central avenues where the eastern side of the roadway would be widened by 22 inches. The project was scheduled to begin this week, but Mr. Pallas said it has been delayed by weather.

Still, he said, it should start “relatively soon.”

The Adams Street parking lot work is expected to begin around the same time, he added.

Mr. Hubbard said the project will create four additional parking spaces.

“This will make the whole block look better,” he said of the overall plans.

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Photo credit: Tim Gannon