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Bay Ridge motorists are about to catch a break.

From now through Oct. 10, the city will lift alternate side regulations in particularly parking-starved stretches of 85th and 87th streets from Shore Road to Fifth Avenue.

Unlike recent parking holidays in Park Slope and Cobble Hill that yielded new alternate-side regulations, Bay Ridge’s temporary easement is a response to road work — in this case, the two-year, $5-million project to repair sewers, water mains, curbs, sidewalks, street lights and roadways on 86th Street.

Permitting parking every day on side streets around 86th Street will double the amount of parking in the area, according to Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge).

Gentile’s office and Community Board 10 have been swamped with complaints from residents and business owners about the project’s impact on parking.

“We’ve lost about 16 blocks of parking to this project,” said CB 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann. “This will really alleviate a lot of that frustration in finding parking.”

The parking amnesty will last only three weeks, at which point the contractors working on 86th Street plan to make more parking spots available, Beckmann said.

But 86th Street businesses — which have been lost customers because of the lost parking — doubt that the parking holiday will bring their shoppers back.

“I don’t think it’s going to help me at all,” said an employee at McKey Liquors near the corner of Third Avenue. “Everything they’ve said they’d do to make things easier hasn’t helped at all. I have my fingers and toes crossed, but I’m not counting on them this time.”

©2008 Community Newspaper Group