Permit parking zone plan unveiled
Permits could be in place by Labor Day parking fees
LANSDALE >> Borough officials have unveiled their plan for what they hope will be a solution to the problem of SEPTA commuters parking in neighborhoods around town.
“The reason for this meeting tonight was to put this out there and solicit feedback. We want to hear from you,” said Police Chief Michael Trail.
“This is not a done deal. This is a hypothetical, which could be expanded, and probably will be — or could be altered. We’re not at the finish line — we’re barely at the starting line, and haven’t even
started our engines yet,” he said.
Trail and Borough Manager John Ernst told an audience of about two dozen residents that they’ve been considering how best to implement a system of permit parking in town for the past eight or nine months, in anticipation of SEPTA beginning to charge commuters to park in their 660-space parking garage behind the borough’s main train station.
“Right now, since that parking garage has been open, for the past year and a half, that parking has been free in the garage,” Ernst said.
“Starting around Labor Day, we anticipate that they will charge for parking. Because of that, we felt that people will start to avoid that $2 per day fee to park in the garage,” he said.
Based on observations and complaints fielded so far by borough staff and police, Ernst and Trail said, they’re proposing two new zones be created that would fall under the town’s current permit parking regulations, which currently only cover roughly four blocks of Cherry Street near the Pennbrook SEPTA station.
The smaller permit parking zone would run along Walnut Street bordering Third and Fourth Streets, just east of the exit from the SEPTA garage. The larger zone would be on the opposite side of the SEPTA rail tracks, and would run along parts of W. Third St., Richardson Avenue, Towamencin Avenue, Derstine Avenue, Columbia Avenue, Susquehanna Avenue, and Green Street, surrounding the downtown core area where parking is already controlled by meters.
“This is something we will continue to look at, we will continue to change, we will continue to massage. We will change boundaries. We will evaluate how this goes,” Ernst said.
“If it needs to be adjusted, and enlarged, we’ll do that, but we want to make sure we do it smartly, and with the people who are impacted most directly,” he said.
Within those designated zones, trail said, residents who live there would be able to apply to borough police for permits, at no charge, that would likely include stickers that would be easily visible to police and borough parking enforcement staff.
“For residents in Lansdale Borough who are on affected streets, the permit is free. We’re not charging folks to now park on the street where they’ve parked, for free, for their entire lives,” Trail said.
The details have yet to be finalized, trail said, but registration will likely be available both in person at the police station and online, with residents submitting license plate numbers, registration and insurance info. Those who register would be given a permit that does not hold a specific space open, but does prevent them from being cited or towed for being in those zones.
“Permit parking registration does not guarantee residents a parking spot on the street, much like you’re not guaranteed a spot on your street right now,” Trail said.
“But what it does do is, it makes sure those available spots are not being used by commuters, and that’s what we’re trying to work thorough,” he said.
Residents will be able to register more than one vehicle, Trail said, and enforcement will likely only be done during the hours specified under the current ordinance, from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
“We all know our neighborhood well enough to know who’s supposed to be there and who’s not. We all know our neighbors’ cars, we know who comes and visits, we know their family members,” said Ernst.
“If you see a car without a sticker, then chances are that’s somebody who’s either commuting, or has not