Bond for PCTI parking garage OK'd
County officials respond to space need at Wayne campus
By: David M. Zimmer
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The Passaic County commissions have approved a $4.5 million bond ordinance to help fund construction of a parking garage at the Passaic County Technical-Vocational School district campus in Wayne, where officials say space constraints have forced the growing high school to go vertical.
.....
The ordinance. adopted during the commissioners' May 27 [2025] meeting, supplements a $2.25 million appropriation approved under a separate bond ordinance in October 2023 and authorizes the issuance of bonds or bond anticipations notes to cover the county's share of the project.
..... The bonds or notes would be repaided through property tax revenue, county records show. However, no down payment is required under state education finance law and the county's obligation may be reduced through state or federal funding, records show.
..... Architect Steven Coppa, who presented the parking garage plan at a Wayne Planning Board meeting in summer 2024, said the 4,500-student magnet school was running out of space on its roughly 55-acre campus. A new athletic facility planned for the Olaham Road campus is expected to eliminate dozens of surface spots, prompting the need for a 291-space parking deck at Kattak Parkway and Reinhardt Road, near the entrance of the Public Safety Academy.
..... The garage and adjoining surface lots, which will add 62 more spaces, are expected to result in a net gain of 110 parking spots. Coppa said they will also serve visitors to the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, now a percent feature of he Public Safety Academy campus.
..... Mayor Christopher Vergano, who sits on the Planning Board, said students have been parking on residential streets and walking to class, prompting restrictions on neighborhood parking during school hours.
..... In the meantime, the school has leased space at the Mahatma Gandhi Center on Preakness Avenue to help address the overflow.
..... Township officials do not have the authority to approve or deny the county-funded project.
..... Staff writer Phillip DeVencentis contributed to this story.