Millbourne Council mulls raising parking permit fees

Millbourne residents may need to dig a little deeper into their wallets if they want to park on the borough’s streets.

At its Tuesday meeting Council discussed raising the fees that residents pay for the privilege of parking on Millbourne Borough streets. Commuters, business owners, and their employees can also buy permits, Township Manager William Stewart told UpperDarbyNow.

Currently, residents pay $30 per permit. If an ordinance is approved, the permit fees will be hiked by $10. But without a quorum onTuesday, the Millbourne Borough Solicitor James Gallagher with Kilkenny Law, advised the councillors not to vote on any measures on its agenda. The meeting was held at 2 p.m. instead of in the evening because of Ramadan.

Council Member Chris Bacelice, who acted as council president, said the ordinance to change the parking permits will tentatively be drafted and proposed by March 17 and then reviewed by Gallagher. He believes it could be passed at the April 21 meeting. 

The borough first adopted residential permit parking as of Jan. 1, 1987, said Nancy Baulis, assistant manager.

“Most of the streets are permit parking only,” she said. The permits are color-coded and affixed to the cars’ review mirrors. Each street has a different color permit. The reason that the borough began the permit parking program was commuters who took the El into Philadelphia to work and took most of the parking spaces, said Baulis. 

“The residents didn’t have parking,” she said. 

For 2026, Millbourne expects to earn $8,800 of its $1.4 million budget from parking permits, including $8,000 from residents, $600 from commuters, and $200 for “commercial”– people who own or work at borough businesses.

Some other Delaware County towns also have parking permits, as does Philadelphia. 

If passed by the council, the parking permit fee increase will not take effect until 2027, said Stewart.

“There’s no free parking in Millbourne,” Baulis quipped.