DOT to Change Parking Rules on Eldridge, Orchard, and Ludlow

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Amidst the discourse surrounding the Chinatown Curbside Management Study, an offshoot issue is concurrently being considered. That of “Better Parking Management” around the neighborhood. This Department of Transportation initiative is a simple euphemism for streamlining the parking regulations along Eldridge, Orchard, and Ludlow Streets, between Delancey and Canal. As it stands, rules vary widely along these corridors, and haven’t been updated in decades.

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The biggest new change is switching all the 2-hour parking meters to 1-hour. This will most certainly piss off the drivers out there. Here’s the action breakdown per street. Time to don those thinking caps…

Eldridge Street
The land uses on this corridor are similar to what is found throughout the Lower East Side: mixed-use buildings with ground-floor retail and some light manufacturing uses in the southern portion of the corridor. While the land uses are consistent, the parking regulations are not: along the entire corridor there is a mix of free parking, 1-hour metered parking, 2-hour parking and No Parking Anytime. Our plan will provide consistency and parking durations that match the land uses. The current proposal includes:

• Replacing all 2-hour meters with 1-hour meters

• Installing new 1-hour Saturday meters

Orchard Street
While Orchard Street has many mixed use buildings with ground-floor retail, there is limited commercial parking space. Additionally, the corridor’s meter regulations vary between 1-hour and 2-hour regulations. In addition, the block between Broome Street and Grand Street is a pilot blockface in the Chinatown Curbside Management Study.

Recommended Actions:

• Switch the 2-hour meters to 1-hour meters to provide consistency along the corridor and within the Lower East Side.

Ludlow Street
The Ludlow Street corridor’s land uses are very similar to the Orchard Street’s corridor: ground-floor retail stores with boutiques, coffee shops, and clothing stores. The southern portion of the corridor has a higher concentration of wholesale and manufacturing businesses, particularly near the intersection with Canal Street. As with other parts of the neighborhood, the parking regulations along this corridor are inconsistent with a mix of 1-hour and 2-hour meters but also significant areas of free parking that experience very little turnover.

Recommended Actions:

• Converting all 2-hour meters to 1-hour meters to promote consistency along corridor and throughout Lower East Side.

• Installing Saturday parking meters on two blockfaces with free weekend parking (west side of block between Delancey and Broome as well as west side of block between Grand Street and Hester Street).

• Installing commercial metered parking on the west side on Ludlow Street between Broome Street and Grand Street to replace an existing loading zone.

• Replace existing No Parking regulations at Canal Street with new commercial metered parking to accommodate existing commercial loading and unloading activity.

The full presentation is reproduced below. Community Board 3 will further discuss the proposal at the transportation subcommittee meeting on February 13.

DOT Parking Changes on the Lower East Side by