Street Parking at Basking Ridge Station Targeted for Restrictions

Commuters who take the train out of Basking Ridge station each morning might have to find a new parking spot soon if the township proceeds in restricting street parking on Turner Street and West Craig Street near the train station.

Basking Ridge Train Station has a pay-parking area, but according to complaints from residents of Turner Street, some rail users have been leaving their vehicles on the residential roads, which currently have no parking restrictions during the day.

To put an end to the practice, township staff, in cooperation with the Bernards Police, developed a proposed ordinance to create a no parking zone along both Turner Street and West Craig Street from 9-11 a.m. West Craig Street was added as a possible target area because of its proximity to the train station. The township staff feared that eliminating parking on Turner Street alone would just move the cars to West Craig Street creating a similar problem.

According to Township Engineer Peter Messina, the 9-11 a.m. restriction was proposed because the police prefer to monitor periods where no parking is allowed rather than a parking time limit, which is more difficult to enforce.

Further complications arose because a dentist office is located on the end of West Craig Street at the intersection with Ridge Street.

"Any hours that you limit during the day as far as parking goes will affect our business," Dentist Cameron Witt, DDS, said at the Township Committee meeting on June 29. Witt works with Joyce Kurdian, DMD at 16 Ridge Street, where the office is located.

Instead of the no parking limitation, Township Committee Carolyn Gaziano proposed the alternative of restricting the parking on the streets to a four-hour limit, most likely preventing commuters to New York City from using the streets as parking, but allowing residents and dentist customers the freedom to use the streets sparingly.

"Dentist customers are probably not going to be there for more than four hours," Gaziano said, to which Township Committee member John Carpenter replied, "God help them if they are."

"It will only take a few tickets for people to stop parking there," said Deputy Mayor John Malay. "Four-hour parking would deter commuters without being unduly difficult for Dr. Witt or the residents on Turner."

The committee voted unanimously to instruct staff to create a new proposal for four-hour parking limits during the day, which will be introduced at the July 13 Township Committee meeting with a public hearing to follow.

Editor's Note: This article originally said that the parking issue was near the Lyons Train Station. The article has been revised to correctly read, Basking Ridge Train Station.