Bellefonte Modernizing Parking Lots

Parking in Bellefonte has long felt out of date, with meters that only took coins, said assistant borough manager Don Holderman, so a three-year plan has been put in place to update the borough’s parking lots and meters with pay stations kiosks that accept credit cards and have electric car charging potential.

Construction has already begun on the Howard Street lot located behind First National Bank. The crews are taking out the old meters, repaving the lot and adding kiosks that will have parkers use their license plate numbers to pay.

While in the process of repaving the lot, the crews will add the infrastructure needed to add two electric car charging stations to be potentially set up at a future date. The borough currently is looking into possibilities and companies to use in order to set up the charging stations. 

The Howard Street lot should be completed by Friday, June 1, said Holderman. In August, crews will start working on the High Street parking lot near Talleyrand Park and CVS. This lot also will have a kiosk and will include infrastructure for one electric vehicle charging station, according to Holderman. 

Borough council president Joanne Tosti-Vasey said the charging station will help bring people into town.

“More people who might have an electric vehicle might come into town and charge their vehicle and then go on to their next stop,” said Tosti-Vasey.

If the kiosks go well, the borough plans to add them to the lot on Spring Street behind the Waffle Shop in 2019. This lot needs less work than the others and will not include a charging station. The next part of the three-year plan would be to update the meters on the streets of Bellefonte to accept credit cards in 2020.

The updates are needed, said Holderman, and will be a convenience to customers, but with the new technology may come small cost increases to parking in Bellefonte. Holderman said the fees associated with credit card usage may make raising parking rates necessary.

That will be voted on during upcoming council meetings.

Holderman said any long-term parkers who are affected by the closing of lots while they undergo construction will be able to park in other locations.