Parking Ordinance Tabled for Another Month

Jenkintown Council Notes, March 2025

Borough Council finally took up Chief Scott’s parking plan for the Borough. By a vote of 8-2, the board tabled the ordinance for another month. 

The two “no” votes came from Council President Jay Conners and Vice President Christian Soltyziak. Council members Steve Spindler and Joanne Bruno did not attend the meeting. The room packed with residents looking on mostly applauded the results. 

Councilor Aliza Narva expressed perhaps the more salient points about passing the ordinance without further public input or a parking study. These sentiments were echoed by Councilor Alex Khalil, who later applauded the residents as they applauded the vote tally.

Before the vote, Mr. Conners read a statement reminding the audience that when first proposed, people also objected to the Leedom parking lot or the Town Square but “everyone” loves it now. 

In fact, it’s easy to find residents who lived here at the time that still question the wisdom of removing so much high-profile property off the tax rolls. The parking lot, built to accommodate businesses, cost taxpayers $2.4 million plus interest. Despite this, business district property valuations continue to decline.

Mr. Conners did state — without evidence — that business privilege taxes have increased. However, for privacy reasons, we cannot parse the sources or locations of that revenue. Only the tax collector knows how much money comes from commercial zones and how much comes from the growing number of home-based businesses. 

What happens now? Council may commission a parking study as recommended in the Jenkintown 2035 plan. It may hold open meetings to take suggestions from residents. It remains to be seen whether further public input will produce better results than the status quo or if it will open a Pandora’s box of further conflict. 

Jenkintown’s residents need to start asking why our business district continues to lag behind those of its rebounding neighbors, which seem to worry less about parking, and more about the business environment and the pedestrian experience. 

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In other news, Council also voted to acquire yet another $63,000 police vehicle despite being down three fewer officers than a year ago, for a total officer staff of seven, not including the chief. The last time we looked, we counted seven police vehicles in the Borough Hall parking lot.

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