Council to vote on parking changes
POTTSTOWN » Better signs, a 43-percent hike in fees and a high-tech way to pay are all part of a parking strategy that will be the subject of a vote at Monday’s borough council meeting.
The strategy was outlined at the Jan. 2 council work session by Peggy Lee-Clark, the executive director of Pottstown Area Industrial Development and a member of the nine-member committee that came up with the recommendations after six months of study.
The last time the borough looked at parking comprehensively was 2002, she said.
Lee-Clark told council the goal of strategy is to improve clarity and equity as well as come up with a cost-effective way for the
borough to manage parking.
One problem is that the downtown area has adequate parking, but not enough people know how to find it, or are clear on what the costs are.
Proposed solutions to this problem are simpler signs and numbering the parking lots instead of giving them names, like the “Trinity lot,” behind Trinity Church, or the “Reading lot,” adjacent to the old Reading Railroad station.
Existing parking signs could be “re-skinned” for $1,250, Lee-Clark said.
The plan also includes measures to reduce threehour parking to one-hour parking and increase hourly parking fee from 35 cents to 50 cents — a 43 percent increase.
The parking rate has not been changed since 2013, said Lee-Clark.
The plan also calls for the phasing out of the pay “kiosks” at parking lots and implementing an electronic system proposed several months ago by a company called “Parkmobile.”
According to the company’s web site, the company reached an agreement with the Philadelphia Parking Authority on Dec. 11 to provide mobile payments, allowing users to use a phone app to pay for parking.
A similar arrangement would be pursued in Pottstown, although, according to Police Chief Rick Drumheller, it would be phased in slowly.
It would also apply to residential parking permits which, with the exception of a 35-cent annual fee paid to Parkmobile, would still cost the same but no longer require placards hung in cars. Instead, it would work off a license plate registration system.
Drumheller said the kiosks will remain for a time for those without cell phones.
He said the system allow allows drivers to call, give a license plate and credit card and they will charge you.
Interim Borough Manager Justin Keller says told council the plan is to implement these changes slowly “and see how they take hold.”
The regular meeting at which the vote will take place begins at 7 p.m. and takes place in the thirdfloor council room in borough hall, 100 E. High St.