My Tax Watch column this week looks at the lack of parking enforcement in hamlet of Katonah, where a new guy on the block has been trying to get town officials to issue more tickets to cars that violate the town’s parking ordinance.
Parking fines were down 8 percent in 2012, and town officials say that the town’s parking enforcement officer has been sidelined with a long-term illness. A new hire broke his ankle. Employees at Katonah businesses, meanwhile, say there isn’t enough parking for them.
Christopher Roberts, co-president of the Katonah Chamber of Commerce, told me today that the biggest parking abuse comes from employees of the downtown employers. He said employers qualified for reduced-price parking permits, but not enough of them have purchased them. He said the lot behind Mrs. Green’s typically has room during daytime hours.
“The problem as I perceive it is that no one business is full incentivized to buy them,” he said. “They don’t think that the three space their employees are taking up are hurting business, but collectively, they are hurting everybody.”
Photo: Three cars, from right, that had been parked on Feb. 7 for almost seven hours in a four-hour parking zone. /David McKay Wilson
