A petition with 537 signatures landed before the Scarsdale Village Board on Aug. 11, challenging the village's effort to replace its 382 downtown coin-operated parking meters with centralized digital pay stations.

Deborah Skolnik, an Oakstwain Road resident who organized the petition through a handful of Facebook pages over the summer, told the board she was voicing "vehement opposition" on behalf of seniors, disabled residents and families who would struggle with the new machines, according to Scarsdale10583.

"One of the biggest groups are seniors, whose population is roughly 2,600, and includes people with limited mobility," Skolnik said at the meeting. "My mother loved shopping here, but she would have struggled to walk to a pay station and wouldn't have understood how to use it, let alone use a parking app."

Skolnik also forwarded the board more than 50 written comments from residents and cited more than 600 disabled residents in the village who could face similar barriers. One resident told her that parking in a handicapped spot would "defeat the purpose" if she then had to walk to a centralized machine.

Village says no plan is final

Mayor Justin Arest presented the modernization rationale at the same meeting, saying the aging coin meters are expensive to maintain, require continual coin collection and repairs, and provide no data on how parking actually functions downtown. He said modern technology could allow the village to create 15- or 20-minute quick-errand spaces in some areas and longer-stay zones in others, rather than the blanket 90-minute limit on most spaces now.

But Arest stressed that nothing has been finalized.

The village expects to present a detailed system overview and implementation plan in September and will continue accepting community feedback. Deputy Mayor Dara Gruenberg reinforced that point, telling Skolnik directly that there is no plan at this stage. She said the village went to the public early, before developing a proposal, specifically to gauge which equipment residents preferred.

Pay stations already on display

In June, the village placed two pay station models in the Village Hall lobby for hands-on evaluation: the MS3 from IPS Group, Inc. and the Citea from Pango/Mobile Smart City Corp. Both were programmed with current downtown time limits, and no actual charges were incurred during testing, according to a village memo.

Resident Miriam Poppo of 11 Campus Place raised concerns specifically about Pango at the Aug. 11 meeting, citing anecdotal reports of incorrect tickets from Pango machines and noting that neighboring Bronxville and White Plains use different systems she found easier. The Village of Bronxville does use Pango's pay-by-phone system.

Arest responded that the village's current thinking would keep individual meters at handicapped-accessible spots so those parkers would not need to walk to a central station.

Broader concerns: privacy, character, competition

Beyond accessibility, petition signers raised concerns about license plate tracking, machines that malfunction or reject valid credit cards, loss of remaining time on a meter and the "urban feel" of pay stations clashing with Scarsdale's village character. Skolnik warned that for nearly every store downtown, there is a comparable shop on Central Avenue, a five-minute drive away, where parking is free.

She suggested the board look at Greenwich, Conn., which she said has budgeted to replace its meters with units that accept both credit cards and cash.

The village's shift toward digital parking systems follows its recent move to an online-only parking permit portal, which eliminates paper applications starting Sept. 1.

The board's detailed parking modernization proposal is expected in September, when residents will have another opportunity to weigh in.