Parking worries for the YMCA

From public discussions at this week's borough council worksession and meeting, it seems as though only the YMCA is worried about whether they will get enough parking in the new Mosteller Garage.
The business community lobbied for a bigger garage, but after the borough's Parking Committee endorsed a 75-foot tall new Mosteller, there was little comment at subsequent meetings from the business community.
But at Tuesday's Borough Council meeting prior to the vote on the height issue, the YMCA tried to pin the borough down.
The Y is trying to sell its building across the street from the Mosteller. In a week or so, the move will probably be complete to its new facility in East Goshen and the current building will be empty.
Marketing the building without any provision for parking could be a problem. Rumor is the Y originally wanted $3.25 million for the property and now the price is up to nearly double that amount.
Pat McKenna, counsel for the Y, said that the current zoning would require 200 parking spaces for a building of that size. The building never had any parking on-site which is grandfathered in.
Questioned whether the borough had provision for any spots for the Y in their alternative parking plan, Council Chairwoman Sue Bayne said the borough would do all it could to accommodate all the current monthlies. But in August, in a discussion of how many monthly customers the borough would need to find alternative spots for either in the Agway Lot or the Bicentennial or Lot No#10, no mention of the Y was made. In fact, the figure of 280 spots needed in alternative lots specifically excluded the county and the Y. The county's parking for jurors and courthouse employees was theoretically moving to the new Justice Center parking lot. The YMCA's customers were moving to East Goshen.
So now the Y is scrambling. Councilwoman Holly Brown says, no one should worry, she doesn't think all the spots will be taken. She also sugests a lottery.
The next step is to see who signs committment letters and puts up whatever money the borough wants as a down payment. If everybody has deep pockets, it could be a problem.

Upcoming borough Parking Committee meeting Sept. 8

For those residents who want to get the latest information on the Mosteller Garage replacement project, I recommend that you attend the borough Parking Committee meeting Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m. It's going to be a chance to give your point of view about how big the garage should be.
According to the demand study, put together by the Harman Group, the borough's parking consultants, the garage should have at least 844 parking spaces. The design study also written by the Harman Group indicates that the garage if it were to stay within the 75-foot height limitation and comply with stepback requirements, it could only have 763 parking spaces including a basement. But according to an internal borough memo, both the Walnut and the Chestnut streets sides of the garage have to have the stepback which will reduce the number of parking spaces to 700. A stepback is a section of the facade that stepbacks from the face of the building. It gives detail to the architecture so that the building does not look like a monolithic slab. But stepbacks take away parking spaces. Seventy-five feet equals an eight tier parking garage.
To complicate matters further, the 844 spaces indicated by the demand study doesn't include the Zukin hotel parking or the YMCA parking.
The Zukin hotel conditional use hearing was postponed until Oct. 13. Meanwhile, I've heard through the grapevine, that the YMCA is in negotiations with a buyer. No word on how many parking spaces that buyer will need.
I think it will be a little difficult to not go to 95 feet or 10 tiers. But then again, maybe the borough can't afford that large a garage.