Parking Spaces

Delaware County government employees complained to the County Council that "outsiders" are parking at the county garage in Media, depriving them of their rightful parking spaces. The employees told the County Council at the meeting Tuesday that they have to get in before 8 a.m. to snatch a prize parking spot. If they have to park out on the street, they're at the mercy of the perennial traffic glut around the courthouse government complex and limited meter parking, according to Mary Ann Blair, chief deputy of the recorder of deeds office, and Cynthia Ferguson, of the register of wills office.

An amendment to toughen the zoning code provision for parking spaces has been recommended for approval by the Radnor Township Planning Commission. The amendment would require developers to build parking spaces "with a township-approved, durable, dustproof and all-weather surface. " The minimum dimensions would remain the same - 9 feet 6 inches wide by 20 feet long. The current code does not specify the composition of spaces. "Some parking spaces have been built on modified materials, even on grass," Michael D. Fleig, director of community development, told the commission Monday night.

Brian Formica, past president of the Downingtown Chamber of Commerce, who runs a shoe repair business, got a taste of the borough's parking problems when he went to a downtown dentist recently: His truck was towed. After calling three towing companies, he finally found the one that had removed his truck from the private Downing Center parking area, where a two- hour parking limit is rigorously enforced. The bill for towing was $40. "I'm a Downingtown resident and a business person," Formica said last week.

The ever-changing number of parking spaces that has accompanied two years of proposals to upgrade the Paoli Shopping Center finally was limited to 536 by the Tredyffrin Township Planning Commission on Thursday night. The commission agreed unanimously that the figure was the maximum it would approve if developer Louis Brandolini met other conditions for his proposal. Last month, Brandolini brought his latest plans to improve the center before the Planning Commission. His preliminary plans to upgrade the center west of Route 252, on Lancaster Avenue in Paoli's special-development district, were approved last year.

An ordinance that would require developers to provide off-street parking when they convert apartments to condominiums is up for adoption by the Narberth Borough Council. During a work session Wednesday, borough officials, who had discussed the need for parking requirements at their February work session, agreed to introduce the ordinance at their regular council meeting tomorrow. According to amendments made to the borough's zoning code in December, developers of apartment units and condominiums are required to provide two off-street parking spaces for each unit.

Long-range plans under discussion by a committee of West Chester's Borough Council would add about 500 parking spaces to the town by the end of the year and a total of 1,000 over the next several years. To create additional parking in a town that has grown increasingly congested in recent years, developers could be required to contribute to a parking fund before obtaining approval for new building projects. The plan was outlined at the council's meeting Wednesday, by Councilman William B. Bowes,, chairman of the planning and zoning committee.

When Robert Gavin Jr. addressed the Horsham Zoning Hearing Board on Monday night, about six of his staffers from Gavin's Clownin' Around tavern sat in the audience and listened to him make a special request. Attired in white polo shirts with the establishment's insignia on front, the workers listened to their boss's request for a variance to allow 88 new parking spaces near the Horsham tavern. For several months, the request has been adamantly opposed by residents complaining of noise, unruly behavior and patrons illegally parking at nearby homes and businesses.

Middletown Township Council has approved plans for 51 parking spaces for the county's proposed new emergency communications center on a portion of the Fair Acres complex off Old Middletown Road. The county plans to renovate the Watkins Building on the Fair Acres property at an estimated cost of $1.3 million to house the new emergency communications center. The county had originally proposed constructing a new building for the center, but decided to reduce costs by using the existing Watkins Building.

A request for variances to allow the conversion of a single-family home in Lansdowne Borough into three apartment units and to pave most of the yard to create 36 parking spaces met with opposition from nearby residents this week. Robert Cohen, a principal of Ath-Dara Associates, which owns the Ath-Dara apartment complex at 83 through 87 S. Lansdowne Ave., is proposing to convert the home at 93 S. Lansdowne Ave. into apartments and use much of the half- acre lot for parking to accommodate Ath-Dara tenants.

DON'T GET between city residents and their parking spaces. Just ask the members of Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church, who found themselves bounced from street to street in search of parking and wound up feeling unwelcomed even though they've been worshipping in their South Philly neighborhood for years. The church sits in the 2300 block of Fitzwater, a crowded street of rowhouses and limited parking, made worse by recent development. For years, the mostly African-American church congregation had been parking across the street on the north side of Grays Ferry Avenue, adjacent to what's now Toll's Naval Square, a luxury gated community of townhomes and condominiums.

By Gustave Scheerbaum Getting from one place to another safely and efficiently is a fundamental part of life. Philadelphia is fortunate in that a good portion of the population lives relatively close to the heart of the city, permitting many to get around by foot and bicycle. So how much should we value making transportation safer and more efficient, including walking and biking, and how should we balance that against our romance with cars? The South of South Neighborhood Association tackled this question through a project called Better Blocks Philly, part of last month's DesignPhiladelphia festival.

PARKING ain't easy down in South Philly. On rough nights, you might have to circle a dozen times and smoke a coupla cigarettes before you find a spot three blocks from your house. Unless you're an off-duty police officer willing to bend the rules. In that case, Help Desk learned this week, there's a loophole in the city's parking enforcement big enough to park your car. For most people, an illegal spot isn't worth it. Philadelphia Parking Authority officers stalk the streets.

HARRISBURG - A Corbett administration official has been stripped of his state car and curbside parking spot after he allegedly cursed at a 66-year-old woman who had parked in his reserved space to use a public bathroom. The disciplinary action came after Philip Abromats, a deputy secretary in the Department of Public Welfare, allegedly hurled invectives at the woman, who had parked in his space at a side entrance to the Health and Welfare Building in the Capitol complex. Abromats, who oversees county assistance programs that provide food stamps and temporary cash aid to the needy, got into a shouting match with the woman.

A 44-year-old man was arrested Tuesday and charged with shooting two people in the city's Feltonville section late Monday night in what police say they believe was a feud over a parking space. Raymond Howard, 44, was charged with two counts of criminal attempted murder and related offenses for the double shooting about 11:30 p.m. Monday on the 4500 block of Hurley Street, police said. The shotgun attack followed another shooting that evening on the same block in which no one was hit, police said.

Though opponents sang the blues about parking issues and the impact on neighborhoods, zoning changes for a proposed Fishtown concert venue were approved by City Council's Rules Committee yesterday. The proposed venue would hold 2,600 to 3,000 patrons with a wraparound balcony and 105 covered parking spaces, situated along the Delaware River, north of SugarHouse Casino. The man behind the plans, David Grasso, told the Rules Committee that the area is a no-man's-land where criminals go to hide out or ditch cars.

VENTNOR, N.J. - With the kind of Memorial Day weekend we had, there really is no turning back on this Jersey Shore summer. The run-up to the first big weekend reminded me of an episode of the Food Network's Chopped , with chef contestants going down to the wire on a ridiculous 20-minute deadline, flinging food onto plates for the judges as Ted Allen calls out, "Time's up. Please step back. " Or, in the Jersey Shore version, "Step away from the geraniums! Your visitors have arrived!"

The Camden Parking Authority, which donated $219,000 to the city in January despite predictions that the agency's expenses would outpace its revenue this year, could lose its most lucrative source of income by the fall. NJ Transit is reviewing the qualifications of companies to take over operation of downtown Camden's Walter Rand Transportation Terminal garage and the transit agency's other parking facilities in the state. The financially struggling Parking Authority, which has been without an executive director since Judy Fulton retired in December, has managed the 500-space garage since it opened in 1989.

ON JAN. 5, letter-writer Pat Dever inveighed about residents who place "trash cans, cones, buckets, and chairs" to save parking spaces they may have shoveled out. Dever also wrote about removing such items "even when I'm not looking to park. " On Jan. 18, Dever wrote that "it seems" the initial "letter struck a nerve" because the DN "posted four letters very much against my stance on saving parking spots, with the writers going as far as threatening me and my tires" and "something has to be done to control this issue before maniacs go out. . . vandalizing vehicles.

AWOMAN becomes engaged to a wonderful man. They don't set a date, and a year goes by. Then five. Then 10. One morning, she wakes up and realizes it's never going to happen. It's never going to happen with Andy Reid. Never going to happen with the Eagles. Their last NFL championship (only half a championship because the AFL had its own) was on Dec. 26, 1960. JFK had been elected, but Eisenhower was still president. The Dallas Cowboys had just played their first season. Should we keep waiting as years turn into decades turn into a century?