Dan Fisco, who rents on Montrose Street in Saugerties, says his family is struggling with an onslaught of out-of-town visitors parking on his residential street — sometimes for days while staying at short-term rentals or visiting Village businesses.
At Tuesday’s Village of Saugerties Board meeting, Fisco complained of people attending HITS and parking large “dualie” pickup trucks on his street, making it difficult for residents to get in and out of their driveway. “We recently had a woman park a big F350 Ford pickup truck,” he said. “It stayed parked there for five days. They all have out-of-state commercial tags. It’s getting ridiculous.”
Retired from a 30-year law enforcement career, Fisco said his family has three cars and he recently had to park one up on the grass beyond the driveway, forcing him to strike a deal with his landlord to help maintain the yard.
Fisco called for Village officials to enact a residential parking permit program, but Mayor Bill Murphy acknowledged that just wouldn’t work and he said the Village has to strike a careful balance between residents’ quality of life and being welcoming to visitors who shop at local businesses and dine at Village restaurants. He said that parking enforcement for a permit system could present a logistical nightmare.
Trustee Donald Hackett acknowledged the problem is real throughout the Village and said the owner of a short-term rental property was telling all their guests to park out on the street, even with the municipal lots available for overnight parking. He said when talking with Fisco, he noted an incident with a woman saying she was just going to park on the street to get coffee only for her to return five hours later with her hair styled.
Murphy said that even while he lives on a cul-de-sac, a car parked in front of his driveway on one occasion. He said maybe the Village could consider using stripping to keep cars as the Village has experimented with on Washington Avenue.
Murphy said he’d also consider a ban on commercial vehicles parking on residential streets to keep owners of large pickup trucks from parking on streets like Montrose Street.
As for short-term rentals, which have drawn complaints from many residents in the Town of Saugerties over loud parties running late into the night, trash and large numbers of cars parked on streets, Murphy said the Village is looking into regulating these accommodations, but is awaiting to see what regulations the Town comes up with first.
The Mayor admitted some operators play by the rules, like zoning regulations, while others just rent out their home without checking the applicable regulations or consulting with Village officials.
“The municipalities got blindsided with Airbnb,” Murphy said.
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