Paid Parking Plan Tabled, But Likely To Resurface

Paid public parking in Newtown Borough will not be happening in 2017.

Newtown Borough Council President Bob Walker explained to NewtownPANow.com that the proposal to install paid parking kiosks in the free Municipal Parking Lot and the potential for paid parking on State Street have been tabled for now. However, he added that the borough would likely dust off the proposal for discussion once developer Alan Smith’s Steeple View mixed use development is completed.

“We didn’t have [parking meter revenue] built in the (2017) budget,” Walker said.

Earlier this fall, residents and business people spoke out before the Council after the paid parking plan was proposed.

The goal of the three self-service paid parking kiosks to the Municipal Parking Lot that serves the business district was to raise money to fund infrastructure projects for the future, officials explained. The initial revenue from the parking meters would have paid for their cost and gone toward the cost of the recent repaving of the public parking lot between Washington and Centre avenues

Newtown officials have identified $528,700 in transportation infrastructure improvements in the borough and hoped to use the parking meter revenue for them. The projects often have trouble being funded because the community only gets about $155,000 in funds between state fuel taxes and a borough street improvement tax, Walker has previously said.

The effort to stop the paid parking plan was led by Issac Newton’s employee Andrew Neville. In only a few days, a petition had collected more than 1,500 signatures against paid parking in the borough.

“It will not only drive away business, but it will also drive away employees and customers of businesses,” Neville told the Council.

Walker said earlier this fall that the parking kiosks would charge $1 per hour Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Several free parking days were also being considered.