A change to some street lines is expected to add 120 on-street parking spaces in targeted neighborhoods in Reading.
City Council has approved shifting the center lines in the 200 and 300 blocks of North Eighth Street to allow parking on both sides of the street and in the 200 block of Grape Street to make way for parking on the south side of the street.
Council also approved eliminating no-parking zones on Avenues A and B to provide additional on-street spaces for residents of the Glenside homes.
Council previously approved a separate proposal for 76 additional spaces in the commercial core by removing no-parking zones in the first blocks of North and South Fourth and North Sixth streets and the 500 block of Cherry Street.
At the time, William Heim, city managing director, said city administrators do not know why or when the no-parking zones were installed.
Nathan Matz, Reading Parking Authority executive director, had presented the concept to council.
The plan was developed over two years with input from traffic engineers, PennDOT and multiple city departments, Matz said. There was no opposition from the mayor, city administrators, fire and police department officials and directors of the city public works and engineering departments, he said, and all needed permits were obtained.
The changes were proposed in response to Mayor Eddie Moran’s request for solutions to the city’s parking crisis, Matz said, noting similar changes are under consideration for several other locations in the city.
Council also has introduced an ordinance that would expand the street parking stall program initiated last year.
Begun as a pilot and made permanent, the program added more than 100 street-parking spaces in select neighborhoods.
The end-to-end, 8-foot by 20-foot stalls are similar in size to those found on parking lots.
Heim said residents have complied with the program and there has been less need for ticketing than anticipated.
Comments from residents, he said, have been generally favorable.
Councilman O. Christopher Miller said several residents of his district have asked about the accommodation of larger vehicles, including pickup trucks. A full-size pickup truck with an extended cab or extended bed would be larger than the marked spaces, he said.
“If there’s a larger vehicle that makes the vehicles in front of it go beyond the line, how is that enforced?” he asked. “Are they automatically penalized because of the first vehicle that takes up, like, a space and a half?”
Councilwoman Melissa Ventura, who serves as council liaison to the parking authority, said it is her understanding that tickets are issued only if a vehicle’s tires, not its bumpers, cross the line.
The fine for parking over the lines was set at $25 during the pilot program, said Linda Kelleher, city clerk.
Council Solicitor Michael J. Gombar Jr. recommended that amount be made permanent.
Councilman Wesley Butler said he would like to know the amount of the fines imposed by nearby cities for similar parking violations.
Heim said he will look into enforcement details and fines in other cities and get answers before council is expected to vote on the matter in June.
Source: Berkshire mont
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