Valet will add 16 parking spots to hotel’s on-site lot

The Patchogue Village Planning Board held a special meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, with the sole topic being on the board’s approval of Watch Hill Hotel Group, LLC’s amended site plan for a 136-room hotel at 138 West Avenue.

The board voted unanimously for approval and acceptance of the amended site plan.

A major point of concern of the board, as well as community members who spoke at public hearings, was the parking situation that the hotel might bring to the area, particularly street parking and parking at the Long Island Rail Road Patchogue station.

James Manicone of JM2 Architecture, representing hotel owners Yair Yaish and his wife, Heddy Yaish, spoke at the podium.

Manicone reiterated that a change in the hotel bar and pool on the roof affected sight lines and therefore the additional space was placed at the back of the hotel, which allowed for an additional 14 rooms.

Apartments were part of the original plan but were not included in the amended plan. Extended stay suites, typically for three-to-five-night trips, were also added. The event space capacity was brought up to approximately 300 and the rooftop bar and lounge to 256. An additional presidential suite was added, bringing the total to three.

Two endpieces on the hotel, referred to by Manicone as “lighthouses,” are at the maximum height of 75 feet, but remain the only part of the structure to reach that maximum height.

The rest of the hotel averages a maximum height of 59 feet.

The hotel has been allotted 106 parking spaces that Manicone said was “right per hotel zoning code.”

“Of course, as you well know, this board’s concern is when you have 300 guests. I’m sure that’s what most people in the audience are concerned about that, with people parking on the streets,” said chairman John Rocco.

“Parking, traffic has always been of some concern that we knew, like every other aspect of this project would have to solve, and over the past couple of weeks… we’ve been trying to identify certain lots that would prove pivotal for valet,” said Manicone.

In a “lengthy” conversation with Fr. David Atanasio of Little Angels Regional School, which is adjacent to the site of the new hotel, Manicone said Atanasio recognized that the two entities could have “synergy” and benefit each other with the church’s rectangular parking lot of 75 spaces.

Colleagues of Manicone had also explored utilizing the parking in the lot across the street from the hotel site plan.

Gerry Giosa of Level G Associates, a parking consulting firm, came to the podium to present his company’s findings after reviewing the hotel’s parking management plan.

“I found that the plan is well developed… it checks all the boxes,” said Giosa. Specifically, he cited the proposed valet plan during peak times and offered incentives for staff to utilize public transportation like the LIRR to quell some parking demand.

Giosa referred to a monitoring plan proposed by the hotel to take data markers during events so that more efficient adjustments could be made to the parking management plan as needed. Specifics were not provided on what metrics would be logged or how quickly changes could be implemented.

Taking into account peak conditions and with the premise of 200 parking spaces needed for an event at the hotel, Giosa said that the valet plan would increase on-site parking capacity from 106 to 122. Running the parking needs from Labor Day figures, the LIRR parking lot had more than the 88 parking spots needed for the hypothetical event.