Springdale Council tables action on proposed parking ordinance near high school

Springdale residents expecting a proposed parking ordinance will have to wait until at least next month.

Council voted 4-2 to table any action on the matter to the July 15 meeting.

Residents living near Springdale Junior-Senior High School are concerned about how the ordinance will affect them, family members and visitors to their homes who park along the streets.

Parking would be prohibited on the cemetery side of School Street, the south side of Butler Street and both sides of Marion Avenue between James and School streets under the ordinance.

On Chester, Logan, Ross, Highland and Pearl streets, the 500 and 600 blocks of James Street, and sections of School and Orchard streets, parking would be restricted to residents via permits.

“Each vehicle registered to residents will get a parking pass?” Faith Gravitt, a Chester Street resident, asked council during the June 17 meeting.

Council President Mike Ziencik said that is the plan and that permits would be issued at no cost to residents.

Gravitt asked if family members and friends visiting residents would be issued parking tickets.

“You need to make a phone call to the police, and they will overlook that instance,” Ziencik said.

Some borough officials have said the ordinance is not in response to the Allegheny Valley School Board’s decision to construct an all-sports stadium across from the high school.

The Springdale Dynamos football team played its games at Veterans Memorial Field in the borough, but the school board’s decision came about after the board and council could not come to an agreement on dealing with structural issues at Memorial Field.

As a result, parking is expected to become an issue when there are home football games. Borough officials are concerned about fans crowding the nearby neighborhoods with their cars and creating problems for residents on game days.

Police Chief Derek Dayoub said borough police officers would not be enforcing the ordinance each day of the week around the clock.

“We’re talking game days specifically, any event really,” Dayoub said.

“This ordinance is basically an insurance policy so that if and when it is needed, the borough can move ahead,” Ziencik said.

He pledged the borough would navigate through any problems that might arise with each affected resident in order to make the situation workable.