Lansdale dentist: Lost parking on Main Street ‘killed my practice’

A long-awaited paving project on Main Street has caused major problems for a borough business.

Council members heard about an unforeseen problem caused by the recent repaving, and re-striping, of a busy block of East Main Street.

“It’s been my dream my whole life to own a dental practice in Lansdale. And last year, I was able to do that: I took over Jeff Hartman’s practice at 42 East Main Street,” said local dentist Brian Guennter.

“It’s a great location, right in the center of town. We have lots of great patients. Most of our patients are elderly. Most of our patients have a little bit of difficulty getting around. And what brings me in today is: yesterday, you killed my practice,” he said.

In mid-September borough officials announced the pending paving of East Main Street by PennDOT, on the heels of the end of construction on the town’s long-discussed East Main streetscape project. The latter project, discussed in concept as far back as 2014, was a federally-funded series of sidewalk and drainage upgrades running along Main from Railroad Avenue, across Broad Street, past Line Street and Memorial Park to Highland Avenue at the entrance to the North Penn Commons complex at the Hillcrest Shopping Center on the 600 block of East Main. In late 2021 the town’s traffic engineer first publicly discussed the changes to the left turn lane, and at the time the traffic engineer said doing so was meant to alleviate congestion and formalize a turn many drivers already make.

The immediate issue arose Tuesday, Guentter told council and two of its committees, when he and staff of the dental office arrived to find PennDOT crews removing signs and painting the new striping configuration on the roadway, with the eastbound travel lane reduced in width from two lanes with on-street parking, to one lane wide eastbound and two lanes wide westbound.      

“The rerouting of the traffic patterns, the taking away of the public parking: you have killed my practice,” Guentter said. “The longer this new pattern stays put, the less likely we will survive. I respectfully request that the turning lane be changed, so that we can have parking again.”

The building has housed a dental practice for nearly 75 years and does have off-street parking from an alley in the rear, but the four spaces there are typically used by staff and tenants of apartments above, and access from the rear can be difficult due to narrow and steep steps.

“Somebody fell down a month ago, before this was even changed, and broke six ribs and their clavicle. You’re making it dangerous for my patients, you are going to make me lose patients, you are going to make me go out of business, if we don’t change this,” he said.

Police Chief Mike Trail answered that the new lane configuration was recommended and vetted by the town’s traffic engineer and approved by PennDOT, with the goal of adding more space for drivers heading westbound toward Broad Street to stack at the left-turn arrow there without crossing into the opposite travel lane.             

“They wanted to build capacity to queue vehicles. So as a result of that, they needed that lane, and that was recommended from Pennoni, the traffic engineer, when they did the East Main streetscape,” Trail said.

Guentter answered that he had not been notified or seen any official word from either PennDOT or the borough that the parking would be removed, prior to The Reporter’s coverage of the pending paving in mid-September, until September 30: “I came into the door watching them cut down signs, paint new stripes, take down the signs that said ‘No parking during snow emergencies,’ and put up signs saying ‘No parking ever.'”

Trail answered that those notifications were likely done when the streetscape design was finalized prior to that project starting in early 2024.

    A car drives past the front entrance to Hartman Dental at 42 East Main Street in Lansdale on Wednesday night, Oct. 1, 2025.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter   

“Council approved the parking restriction, as a result of this, so it was a public vote. We can reach out to the solicitor and manager’s office to determine when that vote came through. But  I can assure you it was prepared and advertised, because this council approved that, as part of the East Main streetscape project,” Trail said.

“That ordinance had to be introduced when the decision was made to lengthen the turn lane. Obviously, they identified there was parking on Main Street that needed to be restricted. So this council did pass that,” he said.

Guentter then asked who made that decision, and if the borough had any input or could reverse it.

“The borough had no say whatsoever? PennDOT said, ‘This is the way it has to be’? So you can un-adopt it?” he said. Trail answered that such a change would be “up to the purview of conuncil, but PennDOT might have something to say.”

Councilman Andrew Carroll asked if the suggestion was to re-shorten the left turn lane to closer to its prior dimensions, and Guentter replied, “100 percent: I’m saying you are going to put me out of business. I won’t survive without parking. Your vote has killed my business. Not yet, but it’s going to happen.” Councilman Mike Yetter asked if the dentist had looked into shared parking with other businesses nearby for staff to use so patients can park closer, and Guentter said he had not had those talks, but the closest nearby lot was posted with warnings that trespassers would be towed.

“That doesn’t change that now I have to pay to have a path created, to get my patients up to the front. I have elderly patients. You’re costing me tens of thousands of dollars, and the hope that my neighbors will be nice,” he said.

Jennifer Wetzel added that she’s worked for over three decades at Hartman’s office and seen patients rely on the street parking, and said one tried to do so after the new stripes were in place.

“We had a patient today in a wheelchair, and she had to park with her flashers on, in the front. And traffic was crazy, it was very dangerous. Because you can’t use the back. We need the front,” she said.

Public safety committee chair Meg Currie Teoh said she and the committee would look into options, and said any fix may not be quick.

“When we vote on something, we’re doing so with lots of research and vetting. So I’m not going to commit to doing something else, without doing more research and vetting,” she said.

Yetter added that restoring the prior turn lane length would go against the recommendation of the traffic engineer, and Carroll said doing so could come with costs not covered by PennDOT once their paving is complete. After making similar comments to council’s code committee, councilman Rich DiGregorio asked where the change had come from, and borough Public Works Director Jason Van Dame said the new roadway configuration dates back to the streetscape design.

“The streetscape project replaced all the sidewalks through that corridor, removed the street trees, and made some improvements. Most of those sidewalks were full width concrete, some had grass strips. But the right-of-way is still the same width,” Van Dame said.

“That started back in 2014. So during that time, conditions with the turning radius from South Broad Street onto East Main Street became an issue, and we talked about moving that stop bar back to give the buses a little wider berth there,” Van Dame said: “The recommendation was to extend that turn lane, the extension became long enough that the recommendation was to remove all the parking along the south side, or westbound lane, which could’ve been in front of these properties.”

“I just don’t want this gentleman to lose his business,” said councilman Rich DiGregorio, and Van Dame answered: “No one does.”

Resident Carole Farrell asked if any other business owners along that stretch were affected, and Guentter said a law practice next door had also used the street parking, but has enough rear parking available. Wetzel then asked when any mailed or posted notice would have been sent to those along the route, and Van Dame said his estimate was about a year ago, and he’d look into specifics.

“We’re not gonna solve it tonight, that’s for sure,” Van Dame said. “We want to raise the issue, and talk about what options there might be.”

Wetzel then asked if it was possible to change the plans before final stripes were added, and Van Dame said that was unlikely, while Guentter said the new stripes and signs were what prompted the immediate problem.

“It’s paint and signs right now. That’s the knife in the back of my practice, right now: paint and signs,” he said.

Carroll added one possible fix on behalf of the economic development committee he chairs.

“Were you going to make modifications to your property, Lansdale has a facade grant program, which is a 50/50 match for up to $10,000,” Carroll said.

“If you were to make improvements to the building, we’ve done grants in the past that were for ADA compliance, as well as beautification. That’s something that you could reach out to us immediately on — just for a very basic, early lifeline, now is the time to start that dialogue.”

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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