A driver heads eastbound on the 400 block of Derstine Avenue in Lansdale, past an area included in the borough’s permit parking zone where SEPTA commuters had previously parked in the neighborhood, as seen in 2019. Photo by Dan Sokil | The Reporter.
Query prompts talk on parking for employees, during big events
A familiar question has come up for discussion in Lansdale again, with a new lesson to keep in mind.
How can the borough balance making parking available in downtown for visitors, while also keeping enough for those who work there?
“This has been around forever. It’s kind of a chickens or egg type of situation. We don’t have a solution, but we’ve discussed it multiple times,” said police Chief Mike Trail.
Parking in and around downtown has been a hot topic for more than a decade, starting in 2010 into 2011 when council and the town’s parking authority commissioned parking consultants Nelson Nygaard to evaluate all parking in the town, and present possible solutions for using the current parking more efficiently while creating more.
The firm presented their findings in November 2011, showing that the borough had just shy of 4,000 parking spaces in the downtown and Pennbrook Parkway areas, with roughly half used during peak hours.
Several recommendations have been implemented by council and the parking authority, including changes in parking prices to encourage turnover in the downtown area, the purchase of electronic kiosks to replace meters in three downtown lots, installation of wayfinding signs around town to point drivers toward lots, and the adoption of an app-based mobile payment system.
The latest round of talks was prompted by a commenter who identified herself as Elizabeth, who said she works on Main Street and has heard a frequent complaint.
“Before, you were able to park wherever, and not be charged for it, which was nice, because you didn’t make a whole lot,” she said.
“I still have a few friends who work in the borough, and now, because of the new parking attendant, he’s very good at his job but they always get ticketed. I was hoping we could come up with a solution: either parking passes, or have free parking spots for people who work in the borough,” she said.
Trail answered that he’s been through several rounds of parking talks, particularly pre-pandemic when police issued over 350 permits for residents to park on neighborhood streets near the SEPTA garage without being ticketed, and separate permits issued by SEPTA in 2021 allowing drivers to park in the garage during snow emergencies.
Parking spaces are seen adjacent to the SEPTA station in downtown Lansdale, as seen from the town’s parking garage, in Feb. 2023.“The idea of, giving every business owner and all of their employees, the ability to park in our core parking areas — would really go against our ability to have parking available for people to come into the core area and spend money,” Trail said.
“If all your employees park in front of your restaurant, none of your customers can get to your restaurant,” he said.
Councilman Andrew Carroll asked if the town had been able to obtain any permits for parking in the SEPTA garage from that transit agency, and parking authority member Dominic Frascella said that request has been discussed, but with no answer back yet.
Elizabeth then asked if the town could set up rules that prohibit employees from parking in front of their businesses, and Carroll said that can be difficult to enforce — but he has a new data point for the parking conversation.
“When the Super Bowl parade happened, and we loaded about 4,500 or 5,000 people at the train station, I know the amount of cars didn’t even get all the way through the second level. That is a massive garage,” Trail said.
“If you go in there and park, up on the fourth floor where the pedestrian bridge is, it’s a hop and skip and jump and you’re right down in (Railroad) plaza. If we could really publicize that, that would be a big help,” he said.
Elizabeth then said she also knew of businesses in Philadelphia that make arrangements with local garages to provide parking; Trail said he’d raise that question with SEPTA.
“I think it’s a conversation worth having,” Trail said.
Frascella said he’d also bring that question back to the parking authority, and said that group had recently discussed short term parking for pickup and drop-offs from restaurants in town, such as at Main and Wood streets by those parking to make pickups from the pizza and pretzel shops there.
“We’ve had that conversation a lot, and it comes down to the business owners,” Trail said.
Police are in the process of obtaining more flexible delineators that could stand upright and block drivers from parking at that specific corner of Main and Wood, similar to the delineators currently on Broad Street north of Main in front of a Rita’s water ice stand, to make a permanent barrier stopping anyone from parking too close to the corner.
“Once those go in, you will not be able to move them,” the chief said.
Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on March 19 and the parking authority next meets at 6:30 p.m. on May 13, both at the borough municipal building,1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.
This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com
