GUILDERLAND – Stuyvesant Plaza, last week, got approval from the town to add a parking lot with 26 spaces behind T.G.I. Friday’s, despite protests from the McKownville Improvement Association.

The McKownville Reservoir Park, nearly five acres of green space behind the plaza and adjacent to Western Avenue, will lose half of an acre to the new parking lot.

“Taking away a large piece of the park is bothersome,” said Don Reeb, president of the McKownville Improvement Association. “It is a terrible hardship for McKownville.”

“It actually isn’t parkland,” said Janet Kaplan, vice president of real estate for Stuyvesant Plaza. “We have an easement from the town.”

The town approved a project to improve stormwater drainage and build the reservoir park in 2009, to help alleviate flooding issues on Western Avenue, near the plaza. The project, in addition to replacing drainage pipes, turned the former McKownville Reservoir into a pocket park, by adding trails around the small pond, benches, and picnic tables.