Page 12 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • August 3, 2011 Allendale Council introduces amended shopper parking ordinance by John Koster The Allendale Borough Council has introduced an amended ordinance that would offer additional shopper parking for the downtown by changing the designation of parking at the New Jersey Transit Railroad Station. “The residents are happy with this version,” Mayor Vince Barra said before the unanimous vote to introduce the ordinance. “One of them stopped me the other day and said, ‘I’m so happy you’re doing what you’re doing and I’m thrilled with this.’” The ordinance, a revision of the parking map around the train station, designates resident spaces for the entire West Side Parking Area of the railroad station and 52 parking spaces in the East Side Parking Lot. These spaces are reserved exclusively for residents of Allendale. General parking spaces will remain available for commuters who are not residents of Allendale in part of the East Side Parking Lot. However, 34 parking spaces designed for shoppers, with two-hour limits, are set aside in the East Side Parking Lot. The spaces will be metered, and the meter fees will be provided later. All commuter spaces are also designated as shopper parking spaces every day from 6 p.m. until 1 a.m. Mayor Barra and council members said they were entirely satisfied with Allendale’s contract engineer John Yakimik’s schematic drawings, which illustrate the parking space pattern. Mayor Barra said he conceived the idea on morning walks when he noted that a great many commuter spaces at the station were left empty even as local merchants said the shoppers who wanted to patronize their stores and restaurants frequently complained about not being able to find a place to park in downtown Allendale. The ordinance is slated for adoption on Aug. 25. The Aug. 11 meeting has been cancelled. Also scheduled for Aug. 25 is a fresh The engineer’s rendering of the proposed parking space pattern. look at the water rate schedule, which was tabled at the July 28 meeting for additional study. Robert Paterson, a former member of the Allendale Council, had raised some questions about the water rate ordinance. Paterson said his ultimate goal is to establish the same rate for residents and for commercial water consumers. He said the draft ordinance did not appear to be moving in that direction, since it appeared to increase the rates by five percent across the board. He said that an increase, which would bring the rates closer to parity, would be more desirable. Mayor Barra essentially agreed with Paterson and said the water rate scale deserved a second look and would probably be reintroduce on Aug. 25. Paterson also noted that water rates appeared to have increased 47 percent just since 2006 -- 55 percent with surcharges for heavier use -- and he believes this is unduly steep. “I think that there is a limit to what the taxpaying public will tolerate,” Paterson said. On this point, Mayor Barra agreed to disagree. Barra said the affordability of water in Allendale had surprised him recently, and he posited that relatively low billing for water might be part of the reason for the Allendale Water Company’s perceived need for a rate increase. “My simple concern is that if I emptied my swimming pool and refilled it and my billing was $305 (for the quarter), that’s an indication of why everybody’s billings seem to be down, due to low consumption,” the mayor said. Barra and the council concurred that the real goal of the rate increase was to make sure that the water supplies would be selfliquidating, and that this concern would be addressed before the new rate scale is introduced. Paterson noted that the water company reported to him that it had a $200,000 surplus and that Allendale should be all right for the time being.