Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty tonight promised to solve a thorny parking problem to the satisfaction of tenants and homeowners in the vicinity of the Ambassador apartment building.
The two groups voiced sharply conflicting concerns during an animated 90-minute meeting, however, suggesting that solutions may be hard to hammer out.
Tenants from the Ambassador, a decades-old 48-unit complex at South and James streets with no parking of its own, said they should have the right to park without restrictions on neighboring streets that have two-hour limits or require permits.
Homeowners from nearby Crestwood and Knollwood roads, meanwhile, lobbied for parking restrictions there because they said outsiders leave junk cars at their curbs and create safety hazards in their quest to nab a parking space.
“We’ll work on finding a solution that benefits everyone. It just takes a little time, and a little hard work,” said the Mayor.
Parking is an issue everywhere in town–including in front of his house on Wetmore Avenue–and it’s a byproduct of living near a desirable downtown, the Mayor said. He pledged to treat tenants and homeowners equally.
Fourth Ward Councilwoman Alison Deeb, who convened the informal meeting, asked residents to establish a parking committee and urged them to press their concerns at upcoming council meetings where parking ordinances will be reviewed.
About 30 people attended the town hall gathering. Most of them were tenants from the Ambassador.
The Ambassador’s parking pinch has grown acute since the Visiting Nurse Association of Northern New Jersey acquired the lot across James Street from the Ambassador last year. Previous lot owners allowed Ambassador tenants to park there; the nurse association ended that arrangement.
Representatives of the nurse association and Ambassador’s management were invited to tonight’s session, Alison said, but they did not attend. Calls seeking comment from the nurse association have not been returned.
For a time, Ambassador tenants were able to park with impunity on restricted streets by obtaining hardship permits from the town. The town stopped reissuing these permits about a year ago, in response to homeowner complaints, and tenants have been getting slapped with $25 tickets for parking on streets with two-hour limits, according to tenant Elizabeth Murphy.
As a stopgap measure, the town has given Ambassador tenants free parking behind town hall after business hours. Mayor Dougherty tonight assured anxious tenants that this parking would remain available for the rest of his term.
Some homeowners and tenants agreed that the town lot might be a good fix if it were made available all day long.
Tenants such as Elizabeth Murphy, a school employee who has summers off, and Letha Jackson, who lost her job, said they have trouble finding parking on weekdays. Likewise, tenants said, they have nowhere to park during the day if they get sick or take vacations.
Other tenants said reaching the town hall lot requires crossing a dangerous intersection at South and James, which floods during heavy rains. And it’s a long walk for seniors or anyone with small kids in tow or groceries to unload. Ambassador tenants said they get ticketed for stopping in the building’s semicircular driveway–a fire lane–even for a few minutes.
As taxpayers, tenants should have the right to park on all public streets, Elizabeth Murphy said.
“We don’t have fold-up cars yet,” she said. “Until we do, we need those streets.”
Ed McNeil said he worries that more street parking restrictions will make it impossible for family and friends of Ambassador tenants to find parking for overnight visits.
Morristown newcomer Jennifer Gates used to live in Hoboken, where she routinely drove for a half hour in search of a parking space.
“I won’t stay long (in Morristown) if that happens,” she said.
Neil Gilbert and Tian Yuan moved to the Ambassador a month ago from New Brunswick, where they experienced many parking horror stories. They think a longer stop light at South and James, coupled with 24-7 parking behind tall hall, would go a long way toward solving the problem.
Area homeowners insisted they need relief, too–from tenants parking outside their homes.
Mark Furman worries that his young daughter is in danger from motorists “going in like fighter pilots landing on the deck” when they see a parking space on Crestwood Road.
“This can’t be committeed to death,” he said. “This is a dangerous situation.”
Another Crestwood resident, Cara Maser, said someone once left a car outside her house for 12 weeks. One reason she moved from Manhattan to Morristown was for the convenience of parking in front of her house, she said. Yet when her mother comes to babysit in the winter, she said, the woman must slog through snow and slush because all the closest spaces are taken.
Richard Ray, a longtime resident of Knollwood Road, complained of jalopies and litter.
“It’s worse now than it ever was,” he said, contending that owners of the Ambassador should pay for a parking solution.
A flyer exhorting Ambassador residents to attend the meeting accused Councilwoman Alison Deeb of trying to slip parking restrictions for Glenwood, Crestwood and Knollwood roads into an ordinance.
Alison said that was not her doing.
“We all have a right to feel safe in our neighborhoods, and we all have a right to park,” said the councilwoman, who remains hopeful of striking a deal with the nurse association to reopen its parking lot to Ambassador residents.
