Politics & Government

What's New in Phoenixville Parking

The "merry-go-round" continues, but progress is being made.

At Tuesday’s meeting, more votes occurred on downtown parking in the borough.

Some of those votes were just going back to what is already in place. Over the past few months, council has vacillated on several points concerning downtown parking. One is cost and the other is credit card use.

“It’s been like a merry-go-round,” Councilman Mike Speck (D-East) said at Tuesday’s meeting.

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Check out the timeline below to see the changes that have taken place. While several votes by council have happened on both the fee amounts and whether or not to accept credit cards, however, no actual changes have been made in the lots themselves.

Borough Manager Jean Krack was waiting on clear guidance before making any switches. Signage reflecting any changes will cost several thousand dollars. That cost has already been approved as part of a parking package not to exceed $25,000. Software changes for the kiosks in the lots cost $375 total, and Krack wanted to ensure that all of those were made at once to avoid being charged multiple times.

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At the May meeting, Krack received the guidance he needed to order signs, so the new policies should be reflected in the four downtown lots.

Credit cards will be accepted—just like they are now, with a $1 minimum charge. The fee overall will stay at 25 cents per 15 minutes, as it is now. One notable change is that parking in the lots will be free until 2 p.m., which was voted for unanimously Tuesday.

“I’m certainly in favor of anything that shortens the hours of having to pay,” Vice President Kendrick Buckwalter (R-West) said.

Regarding the credit card acceptance, Dana Dugan (D-West) and Buckwalter voted against allowing credit card use in the lot kiosks.

“When we went through this last month, we were spending 25 plus percent of the money that we were getting going to the credit cards,” Dugan said. “We’re not changing that. It’s still going to be that.”

Councilman James Evans (D-North) said he agreed, but noted that in policy committee, the credit card issue came down to convenience for lot patrons. In March, more patrons used credit cards than cash in the lots.

With Tuesday’s decisions, Krack can make up signage. Mostly, though, things will stay as they are, with the exception of the lots being free until 2 p.m. each day.

“In essence you’re not changing anything,” Krack said, regarding the credit card transactions.

Dugan said she was unhappy with the way things were going, particularly with credit card fees. 

“I’m thinking we’re trying to make money with this whole parking thing, and so far we’ve done nothing but change our mind and then make up a whole bunch of new rules and then change our mind again,” Dugan said. “I’m kind of frustrated at this point.”

Parking Changes Timeline: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Feb. 9: Council voted 5-1 to drop fees in borough-owned lots to 25 cents per half hour, down from 25 cents per 15 minutes. During that discussion, the question of credit card fees cropped up.

March 9: A closer look at the credit card fees showed that the borough was paying upwards of 25 percent of each credit card transaction in fees. Council voted 6-0 to rescind the fee amendment, putting parking back at $1 an hour for credit card users, or 25 cents per 15 minutes for those using coins.

March 16: At the finance committee meeting, the committee recommended by 3-1 vote that credit card use in the lots should be discontinued.

April 12: Council voted 6-2 to discontinue credit card use in borough-owned parking lots.

April 21: The parking steering committee recommended either reinstating credit card use or dropping parking rates to 25 cents per half hour.

April 25: The policy committee took the parking steering committee’s recommendation on either allowing credit card use or lowering the fee to 25 cents per half hour and voted 3-0 to send those recommendations on to council.

May 10: Council voted 5-2, with President Richard Kirkner (D-North) absent and Buckwalter and Dugan opposed, to accept credit cards in the kiosks in downtown lots. 


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