Survey of High St Business Owners in the effected area.
The borough is now charging for parking on High St. The only means by which customers have to pay for this parking is by cell phone or business owners registering and paying for their customers to park each occurrence. Do you feel the boro should be charging for parking on High St Mon-Sat during business hours?
17% YES
83% NO
In the public lots customers now have the option of paying by cell phone. This is in addition to prior methods. Do you feel the boro should be charging for parking Mon-Sat during business hours in the public lots?
47% YES
53% NO
Do you feel the boro should be charging for parking on High St during the evenings or on Sundays?
7% YES
93% NO
Do you feel the boro should be charging for parking during the evenings or on Sunday in the public lots?
19% YES
81% NO
Are you in favor of 3 hour limits on parking during business hours Mon-Sat?
58% YES
42% NO
Are you in favor of 3 hour limits on parking in the evenings and on Sundays?
24% YES
76% NO
The stated reason these new regulations were adopted was to move cars that sat in front of store fronts all day. In light of the fact the the boro has taken away the 3 hour limits on parking altogether, do you feel these new regulations have solved parking problems for businesses that had an issue?
9% YES
91% NO
Do you feel it is appropriate to give your customers only one means (cell phone) by which to pay to park on High St or have you the business owner pay for/sign them in?
10% Yes both are fine
2% I am fine with my customers only being given the cell phone option to pay for parking on High
2% I am fine with paying for and signing customers into Parkmobile
86% No, neither is fine
Do you feel it is discriminatory towards your customers without cell phones or credit cared to make them pay by cell phone only on High St?
80% YES
12% SOMEWHAT
8% NO
Has the feedback from your customers on these new regulations been positive?
10% YES
10% MOSTLY POSITIVE
32% MOSTLY NEGATIVE
62% NO
Do you have a positive feeling about these new regulations?
10% YES
90% NO
Do you believe your business will be effected positively or negatively by these new regulations?
12% POSITIVELY
90% NEGATIVELY
Though enforcement has not and/or barely begun have you noticed a decline in sales/business?
42% YES
58% NO
Have you thought about moving your business as a result of these new regulations?
5% Yes, and I have taken steps to do so
18% Yes
25% I’m gonna see how it goes
53% No
Do you believe the borough SHOULD NOT be enforcing parking on High St until it gives your customers more options by which to pay for Parking?
91% Yes, my customers need more options than just a cell phone for High St parking
9% No, a cell phone is the only option my customers need to pay for parking
The borough has not hired a meter enforcement office to hand out tickets in the evenings or on Sundays. Do you believe the borough SHOULD HAVE evening and Sunday regulations in place if they are not hiring a meter enforcement officer to ticket during those hours?
89% No, why would they have a regulation they can’t fully enfore?
11% Yes, ticket through patrol officers occasionally.
0% Yes, have patrol officers set time aside to ticket my customers.
Do you feel it is appropriate to use the boroughs patrol officers to hand out tickets if no meter enforcement officer is hired?
66% Absolutely not! They have more important things to do.
14% I’m not sure
9% Maybe
7% Yes
7% Absolutely fine by me
Does your business have it’s own parking lot?
25% YES
75% NO
If so, have you noticed any negative issues with your lot as a result of the new regulations?
- 8% Yes, cars have been illegally parking in my lot
- 3% Yes, there have been people staying with their cars in my lot
- 15% No, I have not noticed a difference
- 75% This question does not apply to me
As a lot owner do you feel these regulations will hurt your business?
- 9% Yes, my lot cannot hold all of my customers
- 9% Yes, what hurts other High St businesses will effect my bus.
- 10% Yes, I will be having trouble with illegal usage of my lot
- 3% No, my business is not effected by the goings on of the town
- 2% No, these regulations won’t hurt anyone
- 76% This question does not apply to me
Were you starting to feel positive about the direction Pottstown’s downtown was headed before the new regulations were put in place?
51% Yes, I was starting to see and hear good things happening
36% Yes, I have been feeling positive about Pottstown’s future
17% No, this town just stays the same
2% No I was feeling worse about Pottstown before there regulations hit
Do you feel the same now?
36% YES
66% NO
If NO, do you feel better about Pottstown’s future?
- 0% I think they will make things better
- 15% I think they will slowdown the good things that are coming regardless
- 13% I think they will keep us from moving forward
- 39% I think they will make things worse for me and my customers
- 11% In think they will make things worse period
- 24% This question does not apply to me
Additional Comments Made by the Business Owners:
Customers have called asking us to deliver our products to them because they do not want to pay to park. Our area is not consider to be part of PDIDA, we do not get plowed parking spaces, yet NOW the boro wants our customers to pay to park? Unless they start listening to business owners, not those just between Hanover and Evans Sts., nothing is ever going to change. We are not Ardmore, this is an economically depressed area, do things to get people into the town, not more reasons to avoid it.
I didn’t answer many of the questions because we are located in the last block before Manatawny Street. We do not feel that block should be included at all as there is no retail business parking, we are 9-5 law offices and the parking in front of our buildings is only used by our clients. We tried to get annual permits we were willing to pay for, but the borough said no. We have figured out how to log each of our clients license plates into our corporate account and we are paying for their parking so we are managing. It is easy enough, but it is far from ideal. It seems to us it will be a real deterrent for the retail and restaurant community growth that we were all looking forward to.
The other problem is the keyosks don’t work in the lot on High and Charlotte – so people don’t have an other option. What about handicap? I can’t have our customers walk a block or so with disabilities. This just needs to be revisited and have the right people in the meeting. It will work out but its done some damage already
I also feel they cannot enforce back in angle parking if there are no lines to show the angle and if the other side of the street is standard parallel parking. It’s confusing to clients who are from out of town. There is plenty of parking available on high street on my block and I feel that parking violations should only be enforced in times of parking shortage.
Many of our regular customers are complaining, and several mentioned that they like to stop by quickly for whatever reason to run into ours, or any of the other businesses on our block and will no longer do so because of inconvenience and fear of a ticket. We’re trying to attract people into town, not give them another reason not to come. This new regulation causes that. My business has been here for years, and we’ve never complained about people parked out front or cars left all day. Frankly, its never been a problem and we’ve never complained about it and were NEVER ASKED ABOUT IT. Id be interested in just exactly how many businesses actually complained. Our foot traffic has been reduced by at least 25 % since the new Regs. Thats 25% less people coming into town for my business OR ANYONE ELSE’S IF THEY DON’T STOP!!!!! All Because customers just wont stop and park. This is a classic example of fixing something that wasn’t broken, to the collective detriment. I suspect this was wanted and pushed for by a small group who are ahead of themselves in thinking we’re going to be the new Phoenixville and somehow rubber stamped it into a policy with what seems to be an ongoing case of poor Local authority and political oversight. I cannot possibly reach a position of how this makes stopping in our town more attractive. I overheard 2 couples in front of a restaurant a few days ago complaining about how difficult and confusing it was to park and that they no longer felt like going in to eat. This is just plain bad for business. PERIOD. We are now concerned that this will affect business to a degree that we may close or move by next year. Time will tell, but with everything else a local Pottstown business is faced with operating here, WE SHOULD BE HELPING THEM, NOT PILING ONTO THEIR WORRIES!
The new regulations have not improved the parking situation downtown but have made conditions worse for business.
old fashioned meters or kiosks are fair to everyone & they MUST be enforced at all times & equally so our customers & visitors get acclimated to the rules
I believe these regulations could be appropriate in the future say 5-10 years from now when the town becomes a hot spot. But only if more options are given by which to pay for parking on High St than just an app/phone. 3Hr limits in the evenings and weekends is ill advised, but perhaps needed during business hours on the 100-200 blocks. Owners and employees on these blocks should be made to park in lots if there 3 or more hours. Paying for parking in lots is fine as there are more options than just app/phone. Paying on High St needs more options and about 5 – 10 more years. Thank you.
This survey is too black and white – there are many questions I could NOT answer because of that – there needs to be a comment area at the very least. Did the best I could with the options that were available on this survey!
I have a feeling one or two people had a issue. Those one or two people probably have nothing better to do than sit at meetings and whine. If you want to do something or get people’s thoughts, don’t hold meetings, they are a waste of time… email people a survey, like this. Took me 5 minutes to do this and didn’t ruin my whole day. The whole parking issue is a waste of time, money and resources. Parking is not a issue, yet. When it becomes a issue, then you charge. It is like having a nice restaurant, when you have tons of people coming to your restaurant do you expand… no… you charge more. Good business. Pottstown is a bad restaurant that charges if you use the salt or pepper shaker. Get people begging to come here first, then you have a parking problem. I went out today on a Wednesday at noon and counted the open spots on the 100 block of E High St… there were 21 open spots. This block has 3 restaurants, 3-4 services spots a couple empty buildings… doesn’t seem like parking is a issue here. Not to be mean or negative but whoever came up with this has no idea what they are doing. They probably don’t live, eat or do anything in this town but make stupid ideas like this… no offense. I said no offense, that makes it ok. I own 3 buildings and 4 businesses in this town… I get 0.0 support from the borough or any government organization. Next time the borough wants to do something like this, take a day and walk into the businesses and ask. I guarantee that will be the first time most people from the borough building walk into the businesses here. Other than the restaurants, they need to eat. Have a nice day.
Pottstown Boro is very antibusisness and always was, this is just a another step in makeing sure new companies that come into this town fail. If they they actually wanted this town to improve start cleaning the streets, paint all the rusting bridges,and keep the weeds on the Boro properties cut, doing these little things make big impact on the image they should be trying to portray
I’ve had people hear about this paying to park deal, and just say, “well I guess I’m not coming to Pottstown anymore!” Business has dropped.
I lost 2 customers already … the one customer went somewhere else and did 6000.00 in biz elsewhere..i am not happy
Business owners would like to have more input on changes in Pottstown.
I think Pottstown should keep three hour parking on high street . (the way it was)
I am a new store here on high street. I feel like parking is an issue but I don’t feel like the current method is the answer. I would be fine with paid parking Monday thru Friday during the day but there needs to be more ways to pay.
Absolutely. I do believe paid parking on High Street is essential, only the means in which it is being done is completely unacceptable for my clients. They are only here for 70 minutes, most times, and downloading apps is another way to monitor people/information, etc. We have many elderly clients and it had already caused issues with them returning. In addition, every business should have been a part of whatever meeting that was held whenever in order to have input on this issue. I have so many other things to say but hope I get to be a part of a cooperative whole in order to discuss and debate Pottstown growth. Simply, I do not see this as a positive step in growing and better Pottstown, and neither do many of the people who frequent my business.
I think everyone needs to get with the times it’s not 1950 It’s 2019 you pay to park anywhere you go the beach, the casinos, PHOENIXVILLE, Royersford where ever GET OVER IT
#7 should have an “I have no idea” option. I believe that when Pottstown’s High St becomes as lively as it’s going to be, then implement pay to park. It makes sense at some point but not currently.
Elderly do not have smartphones. You have new businesses trying to be successful in town but now charging customers to park will make that harder for them. Pay attention to successful Phoenixville. I drove through Phoenixville last weekend and all businesses were busy.
Thanks for Including me. I hope you get the resolutions everyone wants. Onward and upward. I look forward to Pottstown’s betterment.
As a business owner I understand that for business to thrive in Pottstown it is essential that people from OUTSIDE of town come here to spend their money. In the past few months the borough has instituted confusing and restrictive parking regulations and initiated a project on the Hanover Street bridge that will restrict traffic flow in and out of town. Unfortunately, whether deserved or not, Pottstown has a negative reputation in the region. This means the town has to try harder, be more welcoming, and add more incentive to get people to come here than other towns do. Instead they are giving people from outside of town who can not see the good things happening here more excuses for why they shouldn’t come into town. On the 100 block of High Street the biggest parking problem is that the borough employees park on High Street because they don’t feel like walking from their designated lot. On the 200 block it is because the borough made a sweet heart deal with Video Ray and essentially gave away the parking that was between Hanover and Penn streets when they could have offered them a discount rate for permits for their employees to park in the Reading Lot on Hanover street which never gets used and is far bigger. In addition the mechanic on Hanover has 10 to 15 vehicles perpetually parked in that lot taking up spaces as well. The borough should work something out with him where he can utilize the Reading Lot. No residents or business owners should be parking on High street. That should be reserved for short term customer parking ONLY. Restrict permit parking to public lots. People live in town, they should expect they may have to walk a block to get to their car. I get weekly complaints about back in parking and have NEVER gotten a kind word said about it. Get rid of it. Remove ALL parking on Hanover between the river and High. People can just park in the Reading Lot instead of along the street.I didn’t have room to fit all this in the area for extra thoughts in the survey. Hopefully it is okay to add this directly in an email to you and you can make sure my comments remain anonymous. The easiest solution to this would be to restrict the parking permits so they can not be used on High Street and leave High street for short term customer parking only. The borough should reclaim the lot between Hanover and Penn street and turn it back into a public lot and give permits to Video Ray for their employees to use the Reading lot. Most new business in town seems to be concentrated on the 200 and 300 blocks of High street so this would be convenient for visitors to town to have a short walk to their destination. Make Penn Street one way in each direction from High Street and improve the lighting in the lot. You would be adding approximately 80 spots of public parking. Remove the parking from Hanover Street between the river and High. Restrict the speed limit on High Street to 20 mph and get rid of the back in parking. People hate it, they avoid using it, and some avoid town all together so they don’t have to deal with it. Every successful small town I have been to leaves their main street parking free and first come, first serve, and if they charge for parking at all, it is in the lots only. Most of them don’t even do that. They understand that by creating an unrestrictive welcoming environment, people come to the town. When people come to the town, businesses come to the town. When businesses come to town they pay taxes. When businesses pay taxes, the towns aren’t reliant on parking fees to survive. Those towns may have had to bite the bullet for a couple years and had lean budgets until the businesses came in, but in the long run they came out ahead.
if Pottstown is trying to get new business owners this sure isn’t going to help, Pottstown is making things worse for Pottstown
IT’S WAY TOO PREMATURE. I understand a 3 hour limit bc having random cars parked out front my business ALL DAY just takes up spots for my clients to park. But like c’mon! Pottstown’s FINALY starting to pick up some momentum and now this! But regardless it’s not not enough momentum that should require people to pay for parking. Maybe in a few years or when they have a better solution as to where the other cars can park!! DEFINITELY not for it.
Most of our customers are older and Veterans, we should make it as easy for them to shop as possible. As a business owner, I would like to see an area set aside for business owners to park (up to 300 feet away would be ideal. How about behind the Train station and charge us a monthly or yearly rate, since it is usually only 1/3rd filled.
We were dealing with limited parking to begin with now my customers don’t have any idea what’s going on so I’m seeing fewer customers picking Up and coming in. I think that landlords should be involved with solving this problem when renting units
We need to be driving business to the downtown area to help support the businesses that have stood the course and to provide the opportunity for new businesses to survive the process.
This parking ordinance requires further deliberation. It will negatively impact business. It has already discouraged older people from coming downtown to see plays at Steel River Playhouse. Steel River has already been notified by some season subscribers that they will not renew next year due to the new parking ordinance. My office has a lot, but Steel River does not.
Put meters in and enforce time limits or forget it. Customers hate back-in parking.
Customers have threatened not to come anymore.
Bad idea. Get rid of back-in parking too.
What about people without cellphones? You have our customers afraid to park.
Clean trash off streets and have community service.
You don’t have to pay to park on Phoenixville’s Main Street.
These regulations will cause businesses to close in time.
Residents, Bus Owners and Employees on 100 block take advantage of High St parking. If charging for parking would discourage this, I would favor it. However additional residents have purchased parking permits occupying 24/7. There is a lack of consideration to our customers by these individuals. A Kiosk should be present on High St as not to discriminate. Customers are frustrated with poor signage, back-in parking, and no meters. I am afraid they will get tickets for lack of understanding. This has not solved our problems, however we can’t go back to how things were either. I can’t say I have lost business over this as I have only been open a short time.
List of businesses that filled out this survey:
Abundance Soul Food & Catering
Academy of Massage Therapy & Bodyworks
Advantage
Agnes Edmunds Bridal& Formals
American Cash Traders
Argento’s Pizzeria Family Restaurant
Army & Navy
Astro Vinyl Art
Beverly’s Pastry Shop
Blowdacious Salon
Coles Tobacco
Creative Kiddie Care
Custom Print It/Cosmic Art Studio
Dash Fitness Studio
Elks Lodge
Federal Coin Exchange
Fragout Clothing Co
Get Twisted Hair Studio
Grumpy’s Handcarved Sandwiches
Hair Emporium
Handcrafted Artisan Jewelry & Beading Supplies or Studio 36
Happy Blooms & Company
Hing San Chinese & American Food
Hobart’s Run
J.P Mascaro & Sons
Juan Carlos
Kiki Vodka Bar
Laserworx
Lastick Furniture
Laverne’s Glass Pottstown Glass
Me Time Spalon
Memories & More
OWM Law
Performance Specialties, Inc.
Philadelphia Ball and Roller Bearing Co.
Potts & Penn Family Diner
Pottstown Family Dental Spa
Pottstown Historical Society
Pottstown Regionl Public Library
Pottstown Wood Wurks
Rich Ranieri’s Carpet
Sager & Sager Associated Attorneys at Law
Smashville Badminton
Speedtalk Mobile
Steel River Playhouse
Stone’s Hearing Aid Service
Swing Kat Entertainment
Ta-La-Vue Unisex Barbershop
The Hair Rooms
The High St Music Co.
The Little Gym
The Pourhouse Tap Room & Sports Bar
Tower Garden
Treasured Heirlooms Auction
Trophy & Plaque Shack
Twice As Nice
Urban Apparel & Pottstown Flava
Video Ray
Wheels In Motion
WHH&M Law LLP
