TOWNSHIP MOVES AHEAD WITH MORE PARKING ON SPRINGFIELD AVENUE

The Township is moving to lease the parking lot on Springfield Avenue between the Yale Street Commons that houses Top Hat & Tails and the building housing The Rack and Scoops and Soups to add at least 20 more spaces for pubic use.

The Township Committee on Tuesday night directed Township Administrator Joe Manning to move ahead with plans that would allow the lot's owner to forgo his annual $5,751 in taxes for the property in exchange for allowing public parking. There may also be a per-space fee paid by the Township as well.

"This owner is having a problem because people are parking there," Mayor Vic Deluca said during the Tuesday night meeting. "His alternative is to put fences up, which I don't think would be great for Springfield Avenue."

The TC directed the administration to move ahead with lease plans and have the township engineer assess the situation to see how best to place parking space stripes and monitor the use for two-hour parking. The lot is currently paved.

It would also offer a direct link from Springfield Avenue to the large public parking lot behind those buildings that is accessible now through Yale Street.

"We'd get a parking lot, we'd be able to monitor," Deluca said. "We'd be able to stripe it, signage of two-hour parking, monitor that and it would be a better gateway to Yale Street parking than we have now."

It would likely be ready for use by 2017.