Handicapped parking: Northvale church, neighboring seniors fight over spots

NORTHVALE — Residents of a Franklin Street senior citizen housing complex are angry at neighboring Saint Anthony's Parish.

The church, they said, won't let them park in its four handicapped-accessible parking spots.

The church representatives said those spots are reserved for parishioners. They said the Franklin Street Villa complex, which has only two handicapped-accessible parking spots, should be providing adequate parking spaces for its residents.

There has been much back and forth. There have been words exchanged, cars towed, parking tickets issued and a tersely-worded letter sent by the senior residents to the Newark Diocese complaining about the church's lack of "Christian charity."

Franklin Street Villa

The senior citizen complex, which has set aside eight of its 29 housing units to be used by veterans with special needs, only offers two handicapped-accessible parking spaces.

The residents with disabilities said they park in the church parking lot's spots because they are available and also located in an easier to access location.

"We wonder what has happened to Christian charity or respect and compassion for our senior citizens," the residents wrote in the letter to Cardinal Joseph Tobin. They also wrote that they have been harassed over parking by the neighboring church's Rev. Jerry Hahn.

The Villa's two handicapped-accessible spots are located about 150 feet from the main entrance, said resident Nick Langella, 86. He said the spots are too far for him, especially in bad weather.

The Walnut Street church has two handicapped-accessible spaces right outside the Villa's main entrance.

Handicapped-accessible parking rules

The residents, according to the letter they penned to the diocese, believe the church has no right to ban them from the handicapped-accessible parking spots even though they are on church property as long as they have state parking privileges.

Not so, said Lt. Theodore Schafer of the New Jersey State Police said.

Handicapped-accessible parking privileges do not trump lot ownership, Schafer said.

"Is the car allowed to be in that lot in the first place? That is up to the owner. That is between the church and the senior center," said Schafer.

Schafer clarified that it is within owners' rights to stipulate who is allowed to park in its handicapped-accessible parking spaces.

"Your local PD is going to have to deal with the owners and if they say no they cannot park here, then they are going to have to move their vehicles," Schafer said.

Langella doesn't agree.

"I had a terrible fall this winter. I injured my hip and my head. I have a brace on my leg and now I need a walker," said Langella, the former mayor of Rockleigh.

James Goodness, the spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark said that an act of kindness was the start of the rift between the neighbors.

Saint Anthony's Parish

"The pastor at Saint Anthony’s recognized that some of the seniors were having a difficult time getting into the entrance they needed to get into, so he did give people the OK to park there temporarily while they were offloading things," said Goodness.

"They could bring the car into the church lot while they were loading and offloading. But the expectation was, once you get that done you’ll park your car in the allotted space" at the Villa.

Goodness said Hahn was letting people with handicapped-accessible parking privileges park in the blue spaces during the winter, but the church thought that courtesy was getting abused.

Langella said other residents who did not want to be named because they are parishioners at the church, said at this point common courtesy has gone by the wayside.

"He won't even let residents use its spaces when no one is around," said Langella of Hahn.

Langella has received two parking summonses for parking in the church's handicapped-accessible spaces.

Before the Villa

Franklin Street Villa opened in 2016 where a Catholic school used to stand. When the school closed the land was repurposed for senior housing through a joint venture between the Housing Development Corporation, a nonprofit arm of the Bergen County Housing Authority, and the Domus Corporation, which is a nonprofit development arm of the church.

St. Anthony’s has 34 regular parking spots and four handicapped-accessible spots in its lot.

"Saint Anthony‘s parking lot was there beforehand and it was always there for the people who come to the church to attend religious education classes or things like that. It wasn’t for the use of residents overnight," said Goodness. "That was the first mistake the residents had – misunderstanding what was public parking and what wasn’t a public parking lot."

Goodness said the church parking lot isn't a big one and the spaces have to be dedicated to the people who need the spaces, "so that they can get into church or walk into an event that the church is sponsoring."

Lynn Bartlett is the executive director of the Housing Authority of Bergen County. Bartlett said that Northvale’s parking requirements were met and the project was approved by the borough's construction department. In fact, Bartlett said 24 parking spots are required and the Villa has 29.

"Additionally, the ADA in effect at the time of approval required that buildings of 26-50 units have two ADA spaces, one of which would need to be van accessible," Bartlett said. The Villa is compliant with ADA, Bartlett said.

ADA parking guidelines

Despite the growing number of New Jersey residents with disabilities ADA parking guidelines have only seen minor "incremental changes," since 1991, said Dave Yanchulis, spokesperson for the Access Board, which is responsible for developing the guidelines outlined in the ADA.

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund senior policy analyst Marilyn Golden said updating these guidelines to reflect the population’s growing need is the most important thing lawmakers can do to ease the problems caused by the shortage of handicapped-accessible spaces.

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Bartlett said the Bergen County Housing Authority has had conversations with the residents of the Villa and another is being scheduled. One recommendation that came out of the meeting was having a covered walkway to get residents out of the elements.

"We have begun to explore whether we can put a covered walkway in and whether that would require municipal approval," said Bartlett.

Goodness said the cardinal received the letter from the residents and has responded in writing.

"We hope that again the church and Franklin Street Villa can be friendly neighbors," said Goodness. "I know that the residents are concerned about it and rightly so."

Email: myers@northjersey.com