State College visitors who park in College Heights will find a new set of rules this football season.
The borough parking department has implemented a permit system there exclusively for Penn State home-game weekends, parking Manager Charles DeBow said.
Starting now, he said, any College Heights resident who wants street-parking permission on a football weekend will need to call the parking department and obtain a special permit.
DeBow said the permits are free of charge, but need to be displayed prominently in the parked vehicles. He said that will allow parking officers to identify more easily and quickly which street-parked vehicles are permitted — and which are not.
‘We give permission only in certain areas where (parking) is safe’ and won’t interfere with residential traffic, he said.
Normally, no street parking is allowed in much of College Heights. The neighborhood borders the University Park campus, and the parking policy is meant to keep university students, employees and visitors from using the residential streets as a serpentine parking lot.
For years, though, the borough has allowed College Heights residents to park on their streets on a short-term basis. Under the established practice, residents telephone the borough to identify their location and the license-plate number of the car to be street-parked for a day or two. The practice keeps the parking officers from ticketing the allowed vehicles.
And that approach — seeking permission by phone — will continue except on home-game football weekends, DeBow said.
On football weekends, he explained, 50 or more cars may be specially permitted to park on the streets. That creates a significant enforcement challenge for officers, particularly as non-allowed vehicles come into the neighborhood, too, DeBow said.
He said neighborhood residents have been notified by mail of the parking change. If they file their parking-permission requests by the Wednesday before a home game, he said, the borough can mail the permits to them. Otherwise, the permits can be picked up at the municipal building, 243 S. Allen St.
DeBow said the parking department had been considering the new approach for some time. But a recent change in Penn State’s parking prices made this season a prime moment for the streamlined enforcement, he said.
Football game-day parking at Beaver Stadium is now $40 for those who don’t buy in advance. Meanwhile, the price of a parking ticket in nearby College Heights is just $20.
That cost difference, some residents have speculated, could encourage more football visitors to park illegally in the neighborhood.
‘It just makes sense to do (streamlined enforcement) right now — today — with the addition of that $40 parking,’ DeBow said.
Also worth noting: Under State College policy, parking officers may ticket each violator as often as every 90 minutes. So, for a vehicle that lingers illegally in College Heights, a $20 parking ticket could quickly become $60 in tickets — or more.
