World Parking Day helps residents imagine what else is possible if all that space didn’t have to be reserved for vehicle storage.

This week, two things are happening in the West Chester world of parking. 

• Borough Council voted to amend its Zoning code to reinstate parking minimums for new housing developments consisting of more than 12 units.
• West Chester University is celebrating World Parking Day

The two events perfectly highlight the current urban planning fight over parking. On the one hand, there is never enough. This can be easily demonstrated by driving through downtown West Chester on a Friday night or walking through the Borough’s at-capacity residential parking permit neighborhoods at 5 p.m., or at least those in the densely packed neighborhoods surrounding Town Center, but it’s not just the Borough that struggles. Hit the normally amply-spaced Brickette Lounge on line-dancing night and you’ll face a similar issue. But while driving around looking for a spot is many people’s nightmare, all that paved space comes at a cost. 

Earlier this summer, I received an email from Ray Ott, certified urban planner and a consultant on the 2021 Zoning Code rewrite that moved West Chester parking requirements from a set number to demand-based by project, basically it said the changes were made for a reason and included a bunch of links. According to StrongTowns.org, one of the organizations referenced, (as well as professors, researchers, and noted town planners), parking minimums such as those reinstated this week by Borough Council can lead to less vibrant downtowns. Instead of streetscapes full of buildings, you end up with building islands surrounded by parking lots. As Planning Commission member Thomas Dougherty explained to me earlier this year, downtown West Chester could not be recreated today thanks in part to a combination of lot-size minimums and parking requirements. 

In addition to forcing a change to a town’s aesthetic, all that asphalt has been blamed for increasing pollution levels, worsening flooding, and causing a heat-island effect in the summer. And according to Henry Grabar, author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, it has also led to the prevalence of large apartment complexes at the expense of small housing units like row homes and twins. This is because the former are the only buildings that are profitable enough to eat the added parking costs – especially when, as in the Borough, securing sufficient parking space can require digging below ground.

Parking Day

On the other hand, what were you going to do with that parking space anyway? That’s exactly the kind of question Parking Day, the global, public, participatory art project seeks to answer. The idea is to imagine what else the space we currently dedicate to parking could be used for. At West Chester University, participating in their fifth Parking Day, the answers this year will be, get a SEPTA key card, enjoy a snack on the street, take a nap in a hammock, or walk a labyrinth.

“Some of the installations will be for information sharing, while others are places where people can take a calming moment in their busy day,” said WCU Office of Sustainability Administrative Assistant Calli Lambard. 

During the event happening today, 12 spaces on Church St. from University Ave. to Rosedale will be closed to cars (don’t worry the University still pays the meter) to give students and the community an idea of what can be done with the space if it didn’t have to be reserved for a car. In Philadelphia, which has been participating in the event for 17 years, the city works with citizens, artists, and architects to transform metered parking spaces into temporary public parks.  

It was a Parking Day project that served as the impetus to closing Gay St. 

“I will tell you it is the reason Gay St. is closed today,” said Transportation Management Association of Chester County (TMACC) Executive Director Tim Phelps. Tim originally brought the event to the Borough 20 years ago, when he served as President of the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce. He believes Parking Day is an opportunity for people to look at the spaces from a new perspective.

“It’s opening people’s minds up,” he said. “If we didn’t need this space for a single occupancy vehicle, what else could it be used for? What is the value of your street space? What is the curb worth?”

It’s also, as Calli points out, about community.   

“The pedestrian street closure on Gay Street in West Chester is a great example, as we saw how community and fun sprung up in the absence of cars. From the hours of 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on September 20, we can envision a world where we get out of our cars and come together!”

Before all the angry emails come, this is not to say the Borough has enough parking, that each spot at the Burger King and the other developments won’t be used or that meaningful improvements in public transportation aren’t needed. It’s just to note that every decision we make, to quote my middle school civics teacher, has an opportunity cost. Each additional space we mandate to parking may come at the expense of a home or a tree or a new parklet.   

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Originally published on Sept. 20, 2024

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