Police to start parking enforcement in neighborhoods near Madison Lot

SEPTA commuters will be ticketed for parking on several side streets

LANSDALE » Starting Monday, SEPTA rail riders who park on side streets near the now-closed Madison Parking Lot in Lansdale will have to find someplace else for their vehicles.

“Starting on Monday the sixth, we are going to institute a resident-only parking ban. Basically, it’ll be a prohibition against anybody who’s not a resident parking on the respective streets and adjoining blocks,” said Acting Police Chief Mike Trail.

The Madison Parking Lot has closed for the next 18 months, as developer Equus Capital Partners begins construction on a long-discussed project to build six apartment buildings and a public plaza atop the parking lot. Borough officials and the developer have estimated that project will take roughly 18 months, and SEPTA commuters are encouraged to park in the new SEPTA parking garage that opened in April.

While the parking garage has seen an increase in use since the Madison Lot closed, Trail said residents on several streets adjacent to the lot have seen an increase in SEPTA commuters parking in their neighborhoods all day, which the police department is trying to stop.

“A lot of SEPTA commuters are now parking on the side streets, and walking to the station from there. We need to provide some relief to those residents who are affected,” he said.

“We’ve had some incidents over there in the last few weeks, where residents have taken it on themselves to confront commuters, or go out there and put letters on their cars, or in some cases worse. We want to eliminate that, and we ask that the residents contact us,” he said.

Starting Monday, enforcement will be stepped up and parking will be restricted for non-residents on North Richardson Avenue from Main Street to West Third Street; North Towamencin Avenue from Main to West Second Street; West Second from Towamencin Avenue to Wood Street, West Third near North Richardson, and Mill Street to Wood Street.

“During the first week, we will be issuing warnings to non-resident vehicles. After that week is up, then we start issuing citations,” he said.

“Our goal is to partner with the community, to help them be our eyes and ears,” Trail said.

Since the Madison Lot project was approved, residents in those adjacent areas have asked the borough if a permit system could be implemented, so residents in those areas could be more easily distinguished from commuters. Doing that would have taken weeks if not months of planning, Trail said, and officers, if positioned properly, can see much of the impacted area from one or two key vantage points, and are already getting to know residents there.

“We needed to put this program out fast, because we sensed there was an urgent need for relief. That’s why we opted for this, over a very complex placarding and permit system, which would’ve taken a lot of time and forethought,” said Trail.

During the first week, commuters parked in the area will receive a warning to park elsewhere, and starting the following week citations will be issued, which will cost $15 if paid within the first 72 hours, and $40 if paid after that window.

“What we’ll do is create an environment where there’s a subtle pressure for them just to capitulate, and say ‘I’m just going to go to the garage,” said Trail.

“‘I tried this area once, that didn’t work, now I tried this area.’ Hopefully, the third time will be, ‘I’m just going to the garage,’” he said.

Since the Madison Lot closed, Trail said parking has increased at the SEPTA lots near Pennbrook Station on Church Road and at the Ninth Street station, and the roughly 660-space parking garage has been more full, but not completely.

“Pre-Madison closure, they had about 240 or 250 cars a day. I asked again a couple of days after the Madison closure, and the attendant said it was in the neighborhood of 370 to 380, so we already have over 100 more cars there. And I think we’ll have more soon,” said Trail.

A pedestrian bridge between the SEPTA garage and the Madison Lot will likely be closed while construction on the lot itself is taking place, according to Trail and Borough Manager Jake Ziegler, but SEPTA and the contractor have said they hope to have the bridge open from the close of business hours on Fridays through Sundays.

Just south of the parking lot itself, a borough project to widen Madison Street and add more parking there by creating spaces perpendicular to the roadway, rather than the parallel spaces there now, is moving ahead. Ziegler said a $970,000 contract for that project was awarded by the borough parking authority last month, with a formal construction timeline to be announced soon, and work on the road widening expected to be done by summer.

“My personal belief is that, after a couple weeks of really strict enforcement, a lot of this problem will migrate to another area. Hopefully, they’re migrating to the garage,” said Trail.

For more information on the parking restrictions, visit www.Lansdale.org or search for “Lansdale Borough Police Department” on Facebook. To report a problem, call police at (215) 368-1801.