FROM THE RETROSPECT (Brett Ainsworth)
September 15, 2006
Mark Swanson
The Haddonfield Borough Commission ducked objections from business owners and the town’s own business improvement district on Tuesday night, raising short-term parking meter rates and introducing new ones for long-term meters and permits.
The commission gave final approval to an ordinance which raises the rates – after the free period – to ten cents for the 15-minute meters and 25 cents for every 30 minutes for the two and three-hour meters. The rate had been 25 cents for an hour of parking at short-term meters, like those on Kings Highway.
In addition, the commission introduced two others which would raise the cost of parking permits to $127.50 per quarter for municipal lots. Overnight parking permits would cost $100 a year.
At long-term meters with twelve-hour limits, the rates would rise to five cents for 12 minutes, ten cents for 24 minutes and 25 cents for each hour up to 12. The current rate provides for the first 12 minutes on a meter to be free (the first five minutes on a 15-minute meter) and payment of 25 cents per hour for additional time. There are currently eleven 15-minute meters, mostly near the post office, 119 with two-hour maximums along borough streets and 259 with a three-hour maximum on the street and in borough lots.
Partnership for Haddonfield chairman Robert Kugler told the commission that his board voted to oppose the short-term meter rate increase. “The timing is particularly poor,” said Kugler, also an attorney for Haddonfield-based Archer Greiner.
He also held that increasing the rates for long-term meters and off-street permits goes against the logic of making that kind of parking more available to employees in the Central Business District – a “disincentive” to off-street parking.
The borough’s own retail coordinator, Lisa Hurd, who is credited with bringing a number of new businesses to Haddonfield, also opposes the hikes.
Hurd said she was concerned about the timing of the increases, as the town is on the “cusp of exciting things happening.” Three new stores have signed leases in the downtown, said Hurd. Her goal is to have a strong, dynamic and diverse downtown in Haddonfield.
By contrast, the parking hikes feel like “one step back after two steps forward,” she said.
Hurd said she was most concerned that shopping districts and centers that compete with Haddonfield – The Promenade in Marlton, East Gate in Mt. Laurel, Garden State in Cherry Hill and the Cherry Hill Mall – all offer free, accessible and plentiful parking.
Hurd was joined by business owner Stan Maslowski, also a Haddonfield resident, said he understood the hikes’ rationale. He suggested that instead, the borough put parking meters along Kings Highway between Grove St. and the Haddonfield Mews so that high school students could help contribute to local costs. The borough could also add parking meters along Haddon Ave., he added.
Others, like store owner Pat Edwards, said that 50-cent meters in front of her business might make potential shoppers think twice about parking and spending time and money.
Commissioner Neal Rochford defended the rate hikes, saying the borough needs the funds to make parking improvements. Currently, parking meters bring in about $148,000 a year for Haddonfield. Should the borough enact the short-term parking meter hike, Haddonfield estimates that it will realize only about 75% of any increase in 2007 as local employees and shoppers find other places to park. The borough estimates that in 2008, however, parking trends will normalize, bringing Haddonfield an extra $90,000 a year.
Melanie Fendt, the business district’s Marketing Committee chair, said that parking rate hikes would fall the hardest on the shoulders of retail employees, most of whom are paid only hourly wages. The hikes will also make it more difficult to attract new employees, she added.
The commission did not move on a call from resident David Coggins, who asked that the commission table or reject the rate hikes until significant outreach could be performed with store employees about finding alternative parking.
By contrast, Mayor Tish Colombi told the business representatives that she has “long felt” that few make good use of practically free parking at the PATCO Hi-Speedline lot. That lot, she says, is just a block or so from many businesses at the west end of the shopping district and offers free parking after 10 a.m.
Ed Borden, commissioner and director of public safety, said he wants revenues from the rate increases to be directed toward parking improvements. Not necessarily a parking garage, he said, but signage, reconfiguration for more spaces and other ideas. He said the increases are a “relatively painless” way to fund those improvements.
Public hearings for the long-term parking rate increases, both for permits and meters, are scheduled for the Sept. 26 meeting at 7:30 p.m.
Also Tuesday night, the commission:
• agreed to advertise for advertising, market and public relations services, although that includes writing the Municipal Matters column for the What’s On shopper publication, which is currently provided by that company.
• agreed to advertise for the construction of a Public Works Dept. pump station, tree removal services and tree trimming services.
• agreed to advertise and seek new bids for temporary labor for leaf collection, a new trash truck and the construction of a pavilion at Crows Woods, as bids already received came in higher than what was budgeted.
• awarded a contract for $945,194.03 to DeFalco and Bisconti, an Atco paving firm, for the 2006 borough road program.
• awarded a contract for $398,111.85 to South State, Inc., of Bridgeton, for the resurfacing of one block of Marne Ave. The borough had planned to resurface two blocks but earlier bids came in higher than expected.
• approved the appointment of John Gargano and Matt Oatway to the Haddonfield Fire Dept. Explorer program.