Parking wars pits Chester vs. Widener
Welcome to Parking Wars, the Main Event. In this corner we have the City of Chester. As usual, the city is desperate for new revenue to balance its books and continue its long, inexorable climb out of “distressed” status.
In the opposite corner is longtime city stalwart and Chester icon Widener University, one of the city’s main economic engines, home to thousands of students and staff.
At issue is a new parking plan rolled out – seemingly without much in the way or warning – by the city of Chester.
The plan, as just about everything does these days in the city, focuses on raising revenue. The city initially announced it would be installing as many as 1,500 parking meters that would charge $2 an hour. The number of meters already has been reduced, now weighing in at a svelter 1,200. Of those, approximately 480 to 700 would be in and around the Widener campus.
The plan was set to go into effect – coincidentally we’re sure – on Jan. 14, the same date that students return to the Widener campus after their Christmas break.
The city explains the move as a way to “bring order to chaos.”
The university sees it as a money grab, one that would inordinately target students and staff, while having a decidedly negative effect on the school’s bottom line.
The school wasted no time going to court to seek an injunction to block the move. On Wednesday, both sides got the opportunity to argue their side during a hearing before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Barry Dozor.
Rocco Imperatrice, representing Widener, repeated the claim made in filing for the injunction, that Widener is largely a commuter school, and the plan to line the streets around the campus with parking meters would have a deleterious effect, even resulting in some students deciding to enroll elsewhere, thus affecting the school’s bottom line.
The school also believes the city’s plan to bring order to the parking situation could boomerang, with student looking to avoid feeding the meters simply venturing farther out into residential neighborhoods looking for spots sans the meters.
The city countered that they were not targeting the university or students, while insisting that parking in the campus area has been an issue for years, with students often accused of taking over entire residential blocks, including snapping up even spots reserved for handicapped residents.
Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland testified that the area around Widener was merely the first in what will eventually be a three-pronged plan.
As you might expect, money is at the heart of all this. Chester stands to be paid $1 million by PFS VII, the parking vendor awarded the deal to install and manage kiosks, meters, lighting, security cameras and collection activities.
Widener Senior Vice President of Admissions and Finance Joseph Baker said the meter issue could cost prospective students another $1,000 to $2,000 in additional costs. He said he already has been informed by one student that he had decided to enroll elsewhere based on the new parking issues.
Widener estimates they could take a $30 million hit to their bottom line.
Judge Dozor granted a temporary injunction blocking the plan, and asked the city to provide maps to support the city’s claim that it had the authority to implement the plan, and whether the school was being singled out. Both sides will be back in court for an as yet unscheduled future hearing.
More important in all this could be the damage and a sudden fissure in the long relationship between the city and Widener.
The campus has been an anchor in the center of the city for more than a century, with its roots as Pennsylvania Military College. Just last fall the campus celebrated the 150th anniversary of Old Main.
Clearly the school believes it was blindsided by the city parking plan, and also feels it’s serving as a bit of a piggy bank, a way for the city to address its fiscal challenges.
The city simply insists it is responding to complaints of residents in the Widener neighborhood and trying to bring some sense of fairness and order to parking in the city.
“We’re obviously disappointed in today’s ruling,” said Chester spokesman Anthony Campisi after Judge Dozor granted the temporary injunction.
For now, no parking meters. Campisi also suggested that instead of talking with the city, Widener instead ran to court.
“Instead of talking with us, the school decided to file a baseless lawsuit,” Campisi said. “Grandstanding and hyperventilated arguments don’t lend themselves to reasonable conversations.”
That’s the one thing that seems to be missing in all this.
Perhaps both sides can sit down in a Widener classroom and hammer out a deal that works for both sides.
That is, if they can find a parking spot.