A standing-room crowd of concerned residents from the Grey Oaks/Nepera Park neighborhood Monday night spoke out against a new school bus parking lot in their neighborhood and received assurances from Mayor Mike Spano, Council Member Tim Hodges and other officials that the city would take action.
Buses from the All County Bus company have recently begun parking in a lot at 40 Barney St., and residents said their neighborhood quiet has been upended by drivers arriving at 4 a.m., 175 buses leaving and returning four times daily, and the sounds from a tanker truck fueling the buses through the night.
All County recently moved its operations from a riverfront lot near Ludlow Street. The previous location was acquired by the city as part of a plan to turn the area into a park, according to reports in the real estate trade press.
About 75 residents packed into La Lanterna restaurant for the meeting, which was sponsored by Hodges. The restaurant’s owner opened his establishment for the event — the restaurant is across Grey Oaks Avenue from the bus parking area.
According to residents who spoke at the meeting, many of the buses serve special-needs children and have a driver, a monitor and a nurse. The residents said that there is not enough parking for the drivers and other employees on site — which means the All County workers park in the neighborhood, taking up parking spaces previously used by residents, blocking driveways, sitting in cars with motors idling, and littering.
One resident complained of drivers urinating in the street.
While All County’s lot is on the east side of the Saw Mill River Parkway, drivers also park on the west side of the parkway and then run across it. Both sides of the Grey Oaks/Nepera Park neighborhood that straddles the Saw Mill River Parkway are thus impacted by the bus company.
Hodges and Spano — along with Building Commissioner James Gibbons and Daniel Campanini, first deputy chief of police — spoke about potential actions that the city can take to ameliorate the neighborhood’s concerns. Hodges said that the buses “appeared overnight” and that he immediately called upon the mayor for help.
Spano said that the buses have a temporary certificate of occupancy and that he has directed the building department to enforce all zoning rules until the company complies. He further explained that the city was taking court action to enforce the violations.
Gibbons spoke about the permits that were needed, assuring the room that his department was reviewing the problems and that he understood that the bus company had more buses than were permitted by the temporary certificate of occupancy. Campanini said that the police department would have enhanced patrols and that citizens should call the department with any problems they had with parking.
Both Spano and Hodges promised action and a follow-up meeting as soon as possible, potentially within a month.
(Lee Ellman is a former planner for the city of Yonkers and has joined The Ledger as contributing editor.)
