The Lower Merion Township Commissioners voted to ban parking on North Ithan Avenue at their monthly January meeting. The ordinance, which was passed with a 10-3 vote, was adopted following over five community comments and individual statements from nearly every commissioner.
According to the police superintendent, it will be approximately 2 to 3 weeks before signage is posted. After that he says, the police will give the community a few days to adapt to the change before enforcing it with tickets.
The general opinion of the Board was that the district should do more to fix the parking situation and attempt to enable more Juniors to park. Of the members who opposed the ordinance, the main argument was that the Board should not support a ban until they can figure out an alternative solution in collaboration with the school district.
Lower Merion School District Assistant Superintendent Scott Eveslage and Director of Operations Jim Lill attended the meeting. Following the vote, Eveslage told Harriton TV he hopes Harriton administration will do more to accommodate Junior students with a demonstrated need to drive to school. He also said that he thinks administrators will be open to ‘creative’ solutions to the parking problem, and encourages students to reach out with suggestions.
Commissioner Grimes specifically addressed special situations like back to school night in his statement and encouraged the Lower Merion Police to ensure they adequately advertise the few anticipated exceptions to the parking ban.
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