State College Borough and the Downtown State College Improvement District are offering free two-hour parking for a limited time in an effort to support local businesses amid ongoing road work.
The free parking is available now through Aug. 18 at all municipal meters, garages and lots with no validation required. The period leads up to the start of move-in at many downtown apartment buildings.
“We’re thrilled to provide this opportunity for our community to enjoy everything downtown has to offer,” Lee Anne Jeffries, executive director of DSCID, said in a statement. “After a season of construction disruptions, we hope this initiative will make it easier for the community to explore and support our local businesses.”
Work on the first phase of the borough’s Calder Way project has caused several extended street closures, including multiple blocks of Calder Way and partial closures of South Pugh, South Allen and South Fraser streets that have gone on longer than anticipated. PennDOT’s continuing work on Atherton Street, which is expected to wrap up in the fall, has also contributed to traffic woes that have deterred residents from going downtown.
“Downtown businesses have been extremely patient and cooperative during the course of the summer construction season, which has gone into overdrive…,” State College Borough Council President Evan Myers said on Monday night when the free parking program was approved. “I know that folks who live in my neighborhood there has been a lot of frustration about being able to get downtown.”
Downtown establishments have “reported a 20 to 30% loss in business over last summer,” Jeffries told council. With the Calder Way project set to span multiple years, Jeffries said she hopes the impact on businesses can be mitigated, adding that conversations with businesses and the borough started about a month ago and she had hoped to do more this year than 12 days.
“How can we improve upon this next year? I think that’s the important lesson here,” Jeffries said. “Do I want to do a turnaround of 12-day free parking? I would rather not, but this is what we do need to do to show our businesses that we support them, that we hear them. If it’s as simple as that, then I think that shows value.”
The financial impact to the borough is $74,000 ($50,000 from the parking fund for garage revenues and $24,000 from the general fund for meter revenues). DSCID will be providing about $10,000 to help offset the cost, though a final number hasn’t been determined, Fountaine said, noting that “this has happened very quickly.”
Council member Matt Herndon said he wants to support downtown businesses but questioned if there is any data to show the efficacy of offering free two-hour parking.
“I totally agree that businesses have been impacted by construction and something that we can do to help them would be good,” Herndon said. “My fear on this is that we will do this and incur these costs and businesses will profit less than what we lost. I know it’s been stated we don’t have data for this. I hope for this and future parking initiatives that we do businesses will reach out to the borough with some data that shows they are working, because if they’re not then we should just give this money away instead of giving it away on free parking if it would do more for helping them.”
The program is similar to the free holiday parking offered in November and December each year, which both Fountaine and Jeffries said is one of the most popular programs the borough and DSCID offer.
“It is one of the most popular things that we do. We get a lot of feedback,” Fountaine said. “The data is virtually impossible to collect because we are not able to collect sales data or information from downtown businesses except anecdotally. The anecdotal data that we do get indicates that this is a successful program. The garage occupancy, we can’t determine but at this point we are in a slower period and having the first two hours available with no charges will potentially allow more people to come downtown. We don’t know that for sure. It is an effort to try to make a reason for people to come downtown, to eliminate the complaint of ‘I don’t have any place to park and it is expensive.’”
Jeffries added that with or without construction, parking is the biggest challenge for DSCID.
“Parking is the number one barrier for us in downtown State College,” Jeffries said. “It’s the number one visited page on our website and will continue to be because of its barriers.”
