Residents air parking-fee grievances at Lansdowne Borough Council meeting
The new parking regulations in Lansdowne Borough were the most hotly debated topic during a Nov. 19 borough council meeting, which also featured discussion about a still-pending ordinance concerning lead poisoning prevention and the borough’s 2026 budget.
The most passionate comments regarding the borough’s new parking rules came from Jennifer Hoff, owner of Lansdowne Urban Farms, during the public comment portion of the meeting.
“This is a stark reminder that it’s increasingly hard to do business in Lansdowne,” Hoff said of the new regulations, which starting on Nov. 17 require people to pay $1 per hour to park on the street and in borough parking lots, plus a 45-cent convenience fee when individuals use the ParkMobile payment app. Parking will remain free on Sundays and on borough-designated holidays, and residents now must get a permit to park on borough streets between 2 and 6 a.m., among other rule changes.
“I’m not worried about our customers; I’m worried about the renters and the businesses,” on the south side of Lansdowne that are now facing steep parking costs, Hoff asserted.
Hoff said her employees now must pay about $10 per day to park and take multiple breaks to move their cars, and she observed that some renters who work for home will pay about $15 per day to park now. And while those individuals can park on the Highland Avenue lot for a lower permit fee, they would need to cross Baltimore Pike to do so — which is not safe in the dark.
“My ask, respectfully, is to roll back the new parking scheme on the south side until you can come up with a plan to meet the needs of residents and workers without a huge expense,” she said.
Another public commenter, Charlotte Hummel, noted that the ParkMobile app didn’t work when she tried to use it to pay her parking fee the night of the borough council meeting. “I had to go to the kiosk, and it was a mess,” she said, referring to one of two kiosks that accept credit cards and coins.
Earlier in the meeting, Borough Council Vice President Jessica Pointer acknowledged that there were still kinks to work out in the new policy.
“I have been getting several emails, phone calls of different concerns that [people are] having,” with issues such as residents having to pay $15 per day to park, parking signs and more, she said. “We will address those concerns — we do hear you,” Pointer added. “We said that when this rolled out, that it was not going to be perfect.”
Lansdowne Police Chief Kenneth Rutherford added that his department is working on offering QR codes that residents can scan to learn the new parking rules. But Hummel later pointed out that not everyone has a mobile phone, so “QR codes aren’t the answer to everything.”
Also at the meeting, council member William Griffin offered an update about a draft ordinance that aims to reduce lead-based paint hazards in the borough’s many structures built before 1978. Griffin said the borough has held two public forums on the matter and posted a draft ordinance on a landing page where landlords can obtain their rental licenses, all to “ensure maximum visibility and transparency.”
However, when Griffin later tried to add an amendment to the proposal, council members instead voted to table a motion on the agenda to advertise the draft lead safety ordinance. Griffin and council member Ben Hover — who repeatedly challenged his fellow councilors throughout the night to provide more information about topics being discussed — were the sole “no” votes.
Meanwhile, Molly Connors told her fellow council members that they were provided with a final draft of the borough’s 2026 budget, which includes no recommended tax hike or increase in trash or sewer fees. The council will vote on the budget in its next meeting on Dec. 3.
