Springdale Township commissioners want to review further proposed on-street parking rules

The Springdale Township commissioners have delayed action on a proposed ordinance to regulate on-street parking.

The commissioners discussed the ordinance Thursday but agreed to hold off further action to give them more to study it.

“The whole issue is to limit street parking, not to be onerous, but to allow for snow plows to clear the streets,” Commissioner Tim Basilone said.

Basilone said that cars parked along many of the township’s narrow streets make it difficult for the plow truck drivers who have to maneuver around parked vehicles.

The result is piles of snow left unplowed in front of residents’ driveway entrances for them to clear.

“If you are driving a snowplow and you’re bobbing and weaving down the street, you’re going to miss some places and you’re going to end up putting a lot of snow in front of somebody’s house,” he said.

What’s unique about the ordinance, Basilone said, is that it doesn’t provide a general regulation.

It sets down specific rules for each street because they’re all different, he said.

Township Manager Bill “Red” McElligott said that’s meant to avoid future snags.

“The ordinance is going to have some teeth so we won’t have to go back and revisit it later,” McElligott said.

“It will be equitable and fair and, more than anything else, safe,” Basilone said.

He said the commissioners will look at the 2022 parking ordinance, which was repealed when the township updated all its ordinances earlier in the year. Anything worth holding on to would be incorporated into the new ordinance, he said.

Solicitor Craig Alexander said the ordinance is being advertised effective Nov. 15, giving the commissioners 60 days to pass it. He said that leaves plenty of time for review before the commissioners vote on it at their Dec.11 meeting.

“Everybody can look at it and I can tweak it and we can go from there,” Alexander said.