Residents complain permit lottery, ask parking office to prioritize long-term homeowners and finish Lot 6 markings

Longtime residents on West Gay Street told the borough Parking Committee they feel the shift from a first-come, first-served permit system to a lottery has disadvantaged homeowners and created repeated anxiety about losing parking access. Dorothy Hammond, a resident at 314 West Gay Street Lot 6, said the change upended a decades-long routine. "We come at 05:00 in the morning and wait and wait," Hammond said. "Then with this lottery crap, and you gotta wait, see if you were ... it doesn't make sense." Parking staff acknowledged the delay in notifying applicants but said it was caused by staffing shortages. "The delay was simply a staffing issue," Ramsey, who presented the director's report, told the committee. Ramsey said an employee had been out for two weeks and that only two staff members were approving permits while also running the lottery. Ramsey added the committee had adopted regulations two years earlier to limit student permits based on off-street parking: "we passed the ordinance. So now we look at off street parking, and they can only have 1 permit per person." She said the department has been incrementally decreasing total permits in recent years. Residents also raised a separate but related concern about Lot 6 markings and curbside spaces near West Gay Street. A neighborhood representative said public works submitted a work order to paint several resident-only spots but the markings had not appeared. "It's taken forever. I see the guy out there painting the streets today, so he can just as easily do those those 10 spots for the residents," the speaker said. Ramsey confirmed work orders had been submitted and said she would follow up. Committee members and staff discussed ways to reduce the stress of the application process, including shortening the time between application and notification and improving public communication about whether lots are likely to sell out. Ramsey suggested the department could show permit availability counts for a lot in the online system so applicants can see how many spots remain. Hammond and other speakers also described incidents that interfered with applications, for example a parking-ticket flag that blocked an online application step; Ramsey recommended residents contact parking directly when the app produces errors but acknowledged some problems came from confusing timelines. The committee did not adopt any change at the meeting. Staff said they would review options for clearer advance notifications, follow up on the Lot 6 work order, and continue enforcing the ordinance that limits student permits by off-street parking capacity.