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Council trims Broad Street no-parking zone to 100 feet; votes to adopt after contentious debate, promises follow-up on handicap and timed parking
Summary
Council voted to change the parking ordinance on West Broad Street, reducing a no-parking stretch from a 200-foot interpretation to 100 feet. The Old School Meeting House board had urged restoration of nearby curb parking and an accessible stall for events; council members pledged follow-up work on handicap access and timed parking rules.
The council approved an amendment to the borough's parking ordinance affecting West Broad Street after a heated and sometimes personal debate over process and public access.
Representatives of the Old School Meeting House urged council to restore short-term parking near the building so the nonprofit can host events and to add a dedicated handicap space. "We are asking for handicap parking; there's none right now," Mark Bizer of the meeting-house board told council. He said the group also seeks a small number of short-term (30- to 120-minute) spaces so visitors can load and unload safely.
Business owners and residents offered competing perspectives: some said removing what had been interpreted as a no-parking zone would help local shops and events; others warned the change could reduce commercial parking and stressed the need to protect resident parking and safety near the crosswalk.
Council debate focused on two things: the legal history of a 200-foot no-parking reference in older ordinances and whether recent signage and paint reflected that older language; and the appearance of conflict because a council member who owns a retail business across from the stretch had actively advocated for the change. One council member publicly criticized that lobbying and said the appearance of self-interest made the matter harder for the body to consider.
Despite the friction, a motion to adopt the ordinance passed after roll-call voting and an explicit tie-breaking procedural vote by the presiding official. Council members accompanying the vote said they intend to act quickly to identify a curb-accessible handicap stall and to study options for timed parking or other enforcement steps that would balance event access, business needs and resident parking.
The borough attorney confirmed the code book contained overlapping language from prior ordinances and that the 200-foot restriction had not been maintained as an enforceable line in recent codified updates; the adopted change returns the enforceable no-parking zone to the 100-foot stretch near the crosswalk while leaving room for engineering and timed-parking follow-up.
Next steps: council said staff will analyze where a compliant handicap-access parking stall could be located, study timed-parking and overnight-parking controls and engage with the meeting-house board and nearby businesses to implement event-day parking protocols.
