Parking Lot

St. Martin of Tours Roman Catholic Church scored a victory with the New Hope Zoning Hearing Board in December, when the board orally agreed to let the church operate a pay parking lot that neighbors long had opposed. But attorneys for the church have found the zoning board's recent written decision radically different from the December pronouncement and have appealed it in Bucks County Court. The board mediated a debate between the church, which wants to raise money by offering parking-strapped tourists its lot, and residents, who argue those tourists are public nuisances.

An executive order prohibiting the consumption of alcohol at tailgate parties in the JFK Stadium parking lot has been delayed while the city's Law Department works out details of the proposed restriction. Mayor Goode was to have signed the document yesterday, as part of several steps aimed at controlling crowd behavior during Eagles games at Veterans Stadium. On Tuesday, city officials, the Eagles and Ogden Allied Services Corp., which runs the concessions at the Vet, agreed to ban the sale of beer at the team's final regular-season game on Dec. 24. The ban also would cover any playoff games at the Vet, but fans who watch the games from superboxes, skyboxes and the stadium restaurant would still be able to purchase alcoholic beverages.

It may be all right for the birds, but the sight of a 6-foot, 4-inch, 175- pound man bathing nude in the Pennview Savings Association parking lot was too much for bank employees - especially when it became a daily occurrence. They called the police. Montgomery Township police caught him in the act Friday morning. He was rinsing off with a garden hose at the side of the bank. Police arrested Daniel Dean, 32, of no fixed address, at 7:15 a.m. at Pennview Savings, 706 N. Wales Rd. He was charged with open lewdness, disorderly conduct and possessing a prohibitive offensive weapon.

The Media Borough Council has approved a bid for the reconstruction of a parking lot at Galey and State Streets, but not without attracting some controversy. G. Antonini Construction Co. of Broomall was the low bidder - at $28,417 - for the new lot, which will have meters, 24 spaces and new curbing and landscaping. The present lot, which does not have meters, holds about 13 cars. Before the motion was approved by a 7-0 vote Thursday, Mayor Frank Daly asked that a council member explain whose idea it was to condemn and reconstruct the lot, and why it was necessary.

A group of residents opposed to SEPTA's proposal to build an 88-space commuter parking lot on a portion of the 18-acre Duer tract has mounted a campaign to thwart the plan. William Peck, a former township commissioner whose Lindenshade Lane home abuts the tract, said the group has begun a petition drive and hopes to collect 600 signatures in the next few weeks to persuade the Township Board of Commissioners to deny the proposal. Peck said most of his and other residents' objections focus on the partial loss of land that the township acquired in 1996 for the express purpose of preserving open space.

The Zoning Hearing Board will further study an application to demolish a house and make way for a parking lot on North State Road - a decision that pleased more than 35 residents who went to Thursday night's meeting to protest the request. Simon Oulouhojian, owner of Speedway Auto Radiator on West Chester Pike, has asked the board to grant a variance so that he can knock down a house he owns at 15 N. State Rd. to add parking. The house abuts the shop. Three variances are needed, though the primary one would grant permission to put a commercial parking lot on a lot zoned for residential use. Oulouhojian, 64, testified that the house was badly run down and that the only financially feasible action was to raze it. He said he had bought the house without looking at the inside, hoping to turn it into a duplex.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office yesterday filed third-degree murder charges against the man who fatally shot a 19-year-old Willow Grove man July 1 in the parking lot of an Easton Road apartment complex. The shooting was initially investigated as a possible case of self-defense. That claim was rejected, however, after two witnesses told county investigators and Upper Moreland police that James Ford, the victim, was no longer carrying a weapon - specifically, a baseball bat - when George W. Grundy shot him at the Willow Hill Apartments in Willow Grove.

In the end, Bucks County lawyer Richard Patton did go to prison. But not for long enough to satisfy the survivors of Patton's girlfriend, Heather Demou, who died in a fall from his truck during a parking-lot squabble last year. Patton, 53, a former state prosecutor, yesterday was sentenced in Bucks County Court to serve three to 23 months in the county prison. "We were instructed to sit tall as choirboys and let the justice system do its work," Demou's brother, Mike Butler, said after the sentencing.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission has been asked to referee a multimillion-dollar real estate battle between Donald Trump and Penthouse magazine publisher Robert Guccione. The fate of the Pratt Hotel Corp.'s proposed Sands Hollywood project could hang in the balance. In a petition filed yesterday, Penthouse asked the commission to order Trump to rescind a $16 million offer he has made for a 3.8-acre parking-lot site in the heart of Atlantic City. Penthouse argued that the bid, entered in a complicated bankruptcy case pending in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, was nothing more than a "veiled attempt" to thwart the Sands Hollywood project.

Residents who made periodic trips to Tabernacle Township Committee meetings over the last two years complaining about the noise of the rock bands and rowdy patrons at Raymond's Bar will have to perk up their ears to hear the clink of forks and conversation of the dinner crowd that Raymond's now hopes to attract. "We've changed our clientele altogether," said Raymond Bakuckas, owner of Raymond's, which has dropped the "Bar" and replaced it with "Tavern and Eatery. " The restaurant has given up live music.

3-D LASER lights, drive-in movies and sports complexes don't usually mix, though they sound as if they should, don't they? This weekend, the three converge for a multimedia music experience, "Laser Light Show," in a parking lot near Citizens Bank Park. With more than 10 acclaimed DJs performing house and electronica music, plus live rock bands, this event will make tremendous noise. Headliner DJ Scotto is producer of one of New York's first electronica dance-music events, Nocturnal Audio Sensory Awakening (a/k/a/ N.A.S.A)

A 92-year-old woman was fatally struck by a car Thursday when a fellow resident of a Cherry Hill senior housing complex lost control of the vehicle in the facility's parking lot, township police said. Rose Weber, who was pushing a walker in the lot of the Raymond and Gertrude R. Saltzman House in the 1400 block of Springdale Road, died at the scene shortly before 3 p.m. Authorities believe Shirley Braverman, 82, "stepped on the gas instead of the brake" while backing out of a space on the north end of the parking lot, Lt. Sean Redmond said.

Back in 1993, Philadelphia committed a radical act. It opened a new downtown convention center without a single public parking space. Despite the modest inconvenience, the city's hospitality industry exploded. Suburbanites flocked in for the popular flower show and other special events, often choosing to take the train instead of driving. Since then, the city's fortunes have picked up and more cultural attractions have opened, yet the city's resolve to limit parking has weakened.

A 92-year-old woman was fatally struck by a car Thursday when a fellow resident of a Cherry Hill senior housing complex lost control of the vehicle in the facility's parking lot, township police said. Rose Weber, who was pushing a walker in the lot of the Raymond and Gertrude R. Saltzman House in the 1400 block of Springdale Road, died at the scene shortly before 3 p.m. Authorities believe Shirley Braverman, 82, "stepped on the gas instead of the brake" while backing out of a space on the north end of the parking lot, said Lt. Sean Redmond.

SPRING, TEXAS - A newborn who was abducted from his dying mother after she was repeatedly shot outside a doctor's office in suburban Houston was found safe Tuesday night, investigators said. The healthy 3-day-old infant was found about six hours after his mother was fatally shot following an argument in a parking lot, Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said. Ligon wouldn't say where the infant was found, but said that the baby was being reunited with his father.

A female police officer shot and killed a suspect today in North Philadelphia after police said the man struck a Temple student and another officer's car on Broad Street with his pickup truck. A narcotics officer in an unmarked vehicle parked on Broad Street near Oxford first spotted the suspect as his blue pickup truck jumped a curb in a parking lot around 10:30 a.m., hit several parked cars, and then struck the male Temple student, according to police. The officer ran to the scene and attempted to get the suspect out of his truck, but he refused, and then struck the officer's vehicle.

It was 20 years ago that our company was hired to help with the demolition of JFK Stadium. I remember enthusiastically jumping on the assignment, knowing that the razing of the venerable Philadelphia landmark that had stood for more than a half-century as the largest-capacity stadium in the country would be a historic event. Until then, my history with JFK had been memorable but limited. Our family hadn't been big on Army-Navy games, so my only sports-related connection involved years of tailgating in JFK's parking lot for Phillies and Eagles games held across the street at the Vet. However, I was fortunate enough to attend a half-dozen concerts in its monstrously oversize bowl, including Live Aid. Some of those experiences are still vivid.

A $10,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the arrest of the man who attacked a Center City parking-lot attendant with a brick this week. The attendant, Asrat Mamo, was taken to the hospital Wednesday night in critical condition after he was found unconscious on the ground at the parking lot on 13th and Locust Streets. Police are still investigating the motive for the attack, which they do not believe was robbery. Mamo still had cash and a cellphone on him when he was found, they said.

Spectators are welcome to see bone-jarring bull-riding action in a South Philly parking lot this morning. We're talking real big-horned bulls - though the free event is, in part, a promotional stunt for a new pub noted for its mechanical bull. That's the PBR Bar & Grill at the new XFinity Live complex on Pattison Avenue, where the Spectrum used to be. The initials PBR come not from Pabst Blue Ribbon but from Professional Bull Riders, a competitive rodeo circuit affiliated with a handful of PBR eat-and-drinkeries around the country.

Larry Stevenson, 81, whose designs revolutionized skateboarding, died Sunday in Santa Monica, Calif., from complications of Parkinson's disease, said his son, Curtis. In the early 1960s, Mr. Stevenson was working as a lifeguard in Southern California when he noticed surfers darting around a parking lot on crude skateboards cobbled together from planks and roller skates on days when the waves were tame. Mr. Stevenson, an avid swimmer and surfer, thought he could do better. He began building boards shaped like surfboards in his garage, and sure enough, they offered a superior ride.