Council Calls for Public Hearing on Parking Garage

The city council approved a measure last night to call for a public hearing on the proposed new parking garage on Governors Avenue.

The request was brought forward by councilor Robert Penta and approved by a 5-1 vote, with Robert Maiocco voting against it and Paul Camuso absent.

However, the garage proposal has not been brought from committee to the council floor yet, making it unclear when such a hearing would take place.

The council originally planned to have a committee of the whole meeting to discuss the garage Tuesday night, but Maiocco, the council president, canceled it because Camuso would be unable to attend.

The state has offered a , estimated to cost $7.5 million. , and that the bond to build it will be paid off by fees from users.

But three councilors - Penta, Michael Marks and Breanna Lungo-Koehn - have demanded that parking enforcement be addressed before a garage is considered, and

Penta said he wanted the public to have an opportunity to weigh in, and committee of the whole meetings - held in a smaller room and not televised - aren't a good atmosphere for that.

“The resolution regarding the 2 million is something that hasn’t been definitively accepted by this city,” Penta said.

Before voting against it, Maiocco chastized Penta for bringing up the issue before it was voted out of committee.

"You don’t care about the process, you just want to do what you want to do,” Maiocco said. "...The council sometimes gets a little confused.”

Penta later told him to not be "so denigrating."

Councilor Fred Dello Russo voted in favor of the hearing, but said he thought public input was already going to be part of the process leading to a council vote.

“When this comes to the floor for a vote, that is the public process,” he said.