BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Earlier in the week, she tried to block workers from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus from parking along one Fruit Belt street. On Friday, India Walton listened to elected officials as they outlined an agreement.
"I feel encouraged. The thing is, we had an agreement at the end of April, and we found out afterward that CSEA was going to continue to oppose the legislation," said Walton, a Fruit Belt resident.
This time, it looks like everyone's officially on board.
Buffalo's parking commissioner says the plan involves issuing special permits to Fruit Belt residents. They'll then have spaces reserved for them on one half of a block, while the other half will be for general parking.
Residents have long complained of having to park blocks from their homes when spaces get filled by hundreds of medical campus workers.
"Growth is good, but growth should be good for everyone," said Common Council President Darius Pridgen, D-Buffalo.
Other steps are also being taken to help with the parking situation. A 900-car garage is being torn down to make way for one that's twice as big, and Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes says she'd like the individual institutions on the campus work to make parking more affordable for low-wage workers.
"There are people in this industry who don't make enough. I shouldn't say they don't make enough to park, they do make enough to park - but it takes from their money that they need to do other things with," said Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo.
The next hurdle is approval from Albany. Legislation giving the city the okay to set up a permit system has passed the Assembly before, but hasn't made it through the state Senate yet.
State Sen. Tim Kennedy says he's spoken with the head of the Senate Transportation Committee and says he recognizes the importance of the agreement among local stakeholders.
"The confidence of the electeds was a big deal for me, and also Flo Tripi's commitment to not oppose it," said Walton.
Because the medical campus is expected to continue to grow, officials say any parking solutions will likely be temporary, and this discussion is one that will have to continue.