State College is adding commuter parking permit spaces on the 300 block of South Fraser Street.
Borough Council on Monday voted to make permanent what had been a temporary commuter parking zone on the east side of the block between West Foster and West Nittany avenues, and to convert seven metered spots on the west side to commuter permit spaces.
In 2018, the temporary commuter zone was created along the west side, next to Memorial Field, to relieve some pressure created by work that was taking place on South Pugh Street. Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said the spaces are regularly full during the established commuter permit parking hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
At the same time, the five-hour meter spots on the west side are rarely utilized, with the exception of the first two to five spaces south of Foster Avenue that are used by visitors to Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church. Those spaces there will remain metered, but the other seven meters on that side of the block will be removed and designated for commuter parking permits.
“[The east side commuter zone] has worked out very well and that’s a very popular location,” borough parking manager Tom Brown said. “That’s one of the first commuter zones in town that fills up on a daily basis, so adding some more commuter spots in that location seems to make sense.”
Council voted 5-1 to approve the amendments to the ordinance for parking on South Fraser Street. Council member Janet Engeman voted no, and Divine Lipscomb was absent.
Engeman said she was worried about visitors to the church finding parking during busier times such as weddings and funerals.
The borough worked with the church on the proposal, Fountaine said.
“There are meters that will remain on the street and of course there are also meters north of the intersection with Foster Avenue. Those meters will also stay in place,” he said. “The experience we have and the data we have is that those meters [being removed] are rarely used. There is parking when activities are occurring at the church and we will continue to work with the church to designate areas for parking so the persons attending those events or ceremonies have a place nearby to park.”
Highlands Civic Association President Mark Huncik said he is concerned about commuter parking expanding further into neighborhoods and recommended that the borough instead should be incentivizing alternative transportation modes, including by increasing the commuter permit fee.
“Most of these commuter spaces are used by a single person in a single vehicle. The borough should be incentivizing the reduction of individual automobile use and carpooling…,” Huncik said.
He also said that with the borough’s potential acquisition of State College Area School District’s Fairmount Building, 411 S. Fraser St., and the limited parking there, conversion of the spaces to commuter parking was “premature.”
On-street commuter permits are open to the public depending on availability for $45 a month. They offer a cheaper alternative to other parking for commuters in the downtown core, Fountaine said. Brown added that demand for commuter permits is high.
“We have a constant revolving door of people coming and getting commuter permits,” Brown said. “…We’re just trying to create more commuter permits that are close to the downtown core to give workforce people that are commuting in from other communities affordable options for parking… There is a large demand for it. We get calls every day for them.”
The borough is working with the Downtown State College Improvement District on additional projects “to try to create different classes of commuter parking for the core downtown area to help employees in particular who may be in some cases minimum-wage employees that are trying to get to work in those areas.”
