Parking Permits for Atlantic Yards Area Still a Big ‘Maybe’

Parking in Brownstone Brooklyn is already a headache—and that’s without the extra traffic the Barclays Arena will bring to the area once the 18,000-seat arena opens for the 2012 basketball season.

To cope with the impending parking pain, residents have continually pressed the city to initiate residential parking permits—but the city has given locals little more than an ambiguous maybe.

“The community has expressed an interest in Residential Parking Permits for arena events and we are looking into a number of solutions to deal with the parking concerns in the area,” said Department of Transportation Spokesperson Scott Gastel.

He echoed statements made last week by DOT Downtown Brooklyn coordinator Chris Hrones at a hearing on the .

"We need to explore how it would work. This is something we will be looking at in the coming months," said Hrones.

But residents see the residential parking permits as non-optional for the neighborhood, which is already oversaturated with vehicles circling for parking spaces, often for up to 30 or 40 minutes. The proposed arena parking lot would hold just 1,100 cars.

“The parking situation is already bad and is going to be chaotic when the stadium is complete. We deserve it!” vented Sixth Avenue resident Wolf R. Louissaint, 34. “For the residents and natives who have been here for a long time, we should be entitled to some type of parking relief.”

“I don't want to come home from work at night and have to circle around for 30 minutes just to find a spot," said Timika Narine, 36, a resident of Union Street.

Gastel said that any sort of permit plan would need to be approved by the state legislature. It’s not clear exactly what the conditions or costs of such a parking permit would be for residents.

“I just hope that this idea comes to fruition and it's just not a whole bunch of talk,” said Prospect Place resident Karla Andino, 25. “This stadium will be complete in no time and the city should always look out for the residents first.”

Kaia Zawadi contributed reporting.