Parking Garage Project Off The Table For Now In New Hope Borough

NEW HOPE, PA — A parking garage is off the table for now in New Hope Borough.

After spending $600,000 to investigate the idea of building a garage and two years of community debate, the New Hope Borough Council at its August council meeting voted 4 to 3 to abandon the project, drawing and standing ovation and loud applause from the audience in attendance.

The council directed its manager to take the necessary steps to terminate any existing arrangements and future obligations with consultants and other parties, including, but not limited to those with THA Consultants and the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant.

Voting in favor of the motion were Dan Dougherty, Louise Feder, Ken Maisal and Michele Becci. Voting against the motion were Council President Connie Gering, Laurie McHugh, and Peter Meyer, members of the original ad hoc parking garage committee.

The council took action after the borough's newly-formed parking garage ad-hoc committee made up of Dougherty, Feder, and Maisal recommended the cancellation of the project after reviewing the financials, interviewing potential tenants, and coming to the conclusion that the obstacles and risks involved, many of which had been raised by residents over the past few years, were insurmountable.

"The committee wants to express its appreciation to the New Hope constituents who brought these issues to light over the past two years via their questions and public comment," said Dougherty, who outlined the committee's recommendation at the start of the meeting.

During his presentation, Dougherty said the foundational assumption that justified the project to the council and to the public was that the borough would have leases from corporations that would entirely pay for the cost of the garage.

That assumption, he said, was never valid. "The borough's major businesses are not willing to sign leases. This garage would not come close to financially supporting itself and would place a severe financial burden on borough taxpayers for decades.

"While some of the obstacles and risks could, with effort, be mitigated, others are severe and cannot be," he said. "Three of the unsolvable issues are: the total 20-year $28 million cost
and $1.4 million annual expense would represent far more risk than a borough of our size can shoulder; the garage will not generate sufficient revenue to pay for itself; and the negative impact on the borough's finances and taxpayers would be severe."

When Council President Connie Gering invited State Senator Steve Santarsiero to speak about the project after public comment had closed, residents in attendance at the meeting objected as the meeting took a raucous turn, according to a resident who was in attendance at the meeting.

"Residents stood up one after another asking him to stop - that he wasn't entitled to speak," said the resident. "If he wanted to come back and speak at the next meeting, he could do that. The council president kept hammering the gavel to allow him to speak."

During his presentation, oftentimes inaudible due to noise from the crowd, Santarsiero provided figures that showed the borough could build a smaller, 250-stall garage for closer to a more affordable $7 million. He also told the council that he is committed to continuing to pursue additional state funding to further lower the borrowing cost for the project.

"The noise level in the room got to a point where you could barely hear what he was saying," said the resident. "I've never heard anything like it in this town - all these people coming out. And this was their state senator who they voted for and they didn't want him to speak."

Others at the meeting called for the council president's resignation saying she had overstepped her bounds and had shepherded the project for more than two years, spent $600,000 on the project, never communicated to the town, and never developed a business plan for the garage.

After the meeting, Santarsiero said he was "alarmed" by the $28 million cost estimate for the parking garage put forward by the second ad hoc committee and felt compelled to speak, having secured a $1.75 million grant from the state to help pay for the project.

"When I did a thorough analysis of their presentation, I found that cost to be a gross exaggeration and not supported by the facts, thus inappropriately jeopardizing the feasibility of this project.

support this worthy public improvement project."

Unfortunately, said Santarsiero, members of the council offered a motion that was not on the agenda and "certainly a violation of the spirit and intent of the state’s Sunshine Law, consequently leaving the public ill-informed on essential facts regarding the project.

"At the end of the day, New Hope Borough Council will decide for itself whether or not to go forward with this public improvement project that done properly would bring in revenue for the borough," said Santarsiero. "But they should make that decision after the public has been able to review the facts. The vote on Tuesday night, as opposed to voting at a future Council meeting after the public and council has had the opportunity to review the facts, is a disservice to the community."

Bill Clapper, who leads New Hope Speaks, said Santarsiero's comments "didn't really add anything to the situation. He just had a different set of numbers he wanted to present on the cost of the garage, which translated to the least cost for the business owners, but it was still not in the ballpark that the business owners would be willing to accept.

"I think he was quite surprised to see that this was a community that felt passionate about this project in the way that they responded and in the turnout," said Clapper.

"Most people in town don't think we have a parking problem. And we don't," said Clapper. "The high school lot is 20 percent used. The lot behind Union Square where they were going to build the garage never has more than two or three cars on it.

"It's not a parking problem. We have plenty of parking spaces. It's a traffic management problem," he said. "And there are ways to fix that that they haven't done. Signage for the available parking spots is non-existent," he said. "If you're not a resident or frequent visitor to town you don't know where to look for parking. You drive around and around and around. Well, 100 feet away there are 100 parking spaces. They just didn't know about it. So the general attitude in town is, 'Why does the council want to build a parking garage? We don't need it. We just need traffic management.'"

Gering said the decision on whether to proceed with the project was never going to be simple or smooth. "The proposal itself was complicated; litigation delayed our efforts while grant deadlines loomed.

"In the end, we heard everyone's point of view, carefully considered all sides of the issue, and cast our votes accordingly," she said.

"Our process was open, public, and at times quite passionate. We're proud of the passion of the New Hope community — it's at the heart of our character — and I can't imagine having it any other way," she said. "Sometimes that makes for a raucous meeting. That's what democracy is all about."