Bike racks required in New Rochelle for future developments
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- July
- 6
NEW ROCHELLE / Future buildings in the city will have to provide racks for bicycles as surely as they will need parking spaces, or the developers will have to pay into a fund to install bike racks elsewhere.
The new regulation comes as the city works to become more friendly to bicyclists.
“This is one of several steps New Rochelle has taken and hopes to take in order to become more bicycle-friendly and provide residents with transportation options that promote public health, enhance recreation, and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions,” Mayor Noam Bramson said.
The city recently installed 18 unusual bike racks designed by Sarah Baehr, a local artist who won a competition. Baehr, who usually works in oil paints and pottery, is a cyclist. The bike rack design came to her while she was meditating, she said.
“I’m a meditator, and the design was given to me from within,” Baehr said, adding that “it’s been great fun to watch it go on its journey” to becoming the newest stations for bike parking.
Each rack angles forward where the front wheel goes, similar to the bow of a ship, while the other end features an egg-shaped loop. They are installed at City Hall, 515 North Ave.; Hudson Park; and Huguenot Lake near North Avenue and Eastchester Road by New Rochelle High School.
The new regulation applies to any residential building with at least 10 units, as well as commercial buildings. It requires one bicycle parking space for every 10 parking spaces for motor vehicles. In the downtown, for instance, zoning requires a vehicle parking space for every residential unit. So a building with 120 apartments would require parking for 120 motor vehicles and 12 bicycles.
To avoid the requirement, a developer would have to pay $300 for every bicycle that would otherwise have been accommodated on-site. The rule encourages developers to provide the bike parking on-site because for about the same cost, they could purchase a basic rack that would hold two bicycles. So the developer would pay about twice as much to opt out of providing the racks.
Still, the city can make good use of the money if developers choose to pay, Lynch said. “There are many places around town where we do need to have bicycle racks installed,” Lynch said.
“Anything that promotes cycling and promotes alternate transportation options is a good thing for Westchester and any area,” said Michael Oliva, co-founder of the recently formed Westchester Biking and Walking Alliance. “Hopefully it’s a model which other towns in Westchester can follow.”
Thanks to Journal News writer Ken Valenti for this report.
This entry was posted
on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 7:25 AM by Randall Wolf. 
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