Residents ask West Chester parking committee to shorten Thursday no‑parking window, raise private‑lot concerns

Kristen Weitzberger, who said she lives on the 200 block of South Matlach Street, told the parking committee the neighborhood faces “a serious dearth of parking spaces” and asked the borough to change Thursday street‑sweeping no‑parking hours from 8 a.m.–12 p.m. to 9 a.m.–12 p.m. to reduce the burden on commuters who return home after 9 a.m.

“At 8:15 or 8:30 or 8:45 nobody’s there cleaning the streets,” Weitzberger said, arguing a later start would ease the difficulty of finding parking after work. The staff member responding said the current schedule had been considered in the borough's parking study and recommended consulting Public Works, which sets street‑sweeping routes and times, and offered to place the item on next month's public works meeting for broader review.

Weitzberger also raised a second concern about a parcel at the corner of Minor and Matlach that she said had been converted from a house to a rooming house and whose adjacent parking parcel, zoned as a parking lot, had been closed off after the owner began renting spaces privately. “It's almost half of the block,” she said, asking why a parcel zoned for parking could be blocked to the public. The staff member told the committee that, based on prior inquiries, the owner was not allowed to rent those spaces at this time and that the lot's intended access was from the alley; the borough had requested Public Works install signage to allow curb parking leading to the alley entry.

Simon Crew, another resident on South Matlach, said the borough's online portal for guest passes is difficult to use: appointments cannot be made online, there are typos and scheduling errors, and phone service is often unresponsive, forcing residents to obtain guest passes in person during business hours. A staff member explained guest passes are physical hang tags, which is why requesters must pick them up in person, and said a Calendly scheduling problem had been fixed that morning.

The committee did not vote on any of these items at the meeting. Staff committed to follow up with Public Works about the Thursday schedule, to pursue signage and enforcement options for the fenced parking parcel at Minor and Matlach, and to place the street‑sweeping schedule on the next public works agenda if members request it.