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More than two years after a two-level parking garage in Johnson City collapsed, trapping nearly two dozen vehicles,  both the State Assembly and Senate passed a law requiring the inspections state-wide.  But Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed the bill.  So the state has passed the responsibility down to local municipalities, requiring them to pass local laws requiring parking garage regulation.  The Village of Lansing is doing that... even though there are no parking garages within its borders.

"The State said we must have this," said Village Attorney William Troy Monday at a Board of Trustees meeting. "To my knowledge, in the history of this Village we have never had a parking garage.  We don't have one now.  There's absolutely no reason to think we'll have one at any time in the future.  But we have to do this."

Village officials noted that Binghamton's remaining parking garage was demolished because it was unsafe, and some in Ithaca have deteriorated to the point are not long for this world.

Cities, towns, villages, counties, and State agencies responsible for administering and enforcing the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code are required by the State to require owners of parking garages to obtain permits and have periodic inspections.  The assessments much be carried out by qualified engineers.  While there is no state law, the State did provide a model law, on which Troy has based the proposed Village law.

The proposed Local Law 2 of 2019 will require the Village Code Inspection Officer to retain all the assessment reports filed by professional engineers for the non-existent parking garages, and to enforce the law if a garage is determined to need repairs.

"The Village of Lansing Code Enforcement Officer shall, by Order to Remedy or such other means of enforcement as he may deem appropriate, require the owner or operator of the parking garage to repair or otherwise remedy all deterioration, all conditions that cause deterioration, and all unsafe conditions identified in such condition assessment report. All repairs and remedies shall comply with the applicable provisions of the Uniform Code," it reads.

Before local laws can be passed a public hearing is required.  Such hearings on non-controversial issues rarely attract speakers in the Village.  The Trustees set the public hearing for March 4th at 7:35.  They will likely pass the law immediately after the hearing.

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