As Easton nears a population of 30,000, many city residents and officials have pointed to one growing issue: downtown parking.
Some call it a lack of parking, mainly on the streets. Others say there is severe “mismanagement” of the city’s parking system.
According to Easton City Council data, there are just over 1,800 parking spots in Easton. Almost half are from the city’s two primary parking garages: the Fourth Street Garage, built in 2023, and the Third Street Garage, built in 2015.
The city has tried to incentivize people to park in the garages because street parking — with around 1,000 total spots — often fills up, according to Frank Pintabone, an Easton City Council member.
But some Easton residents and business owners are frustrated. They believe that parking garages, often left vacant, create long-term concerns for the city.
“Nobody wants to use the parking garages,” said Lenore Beers, an Easton resident who previously spoke about parking at public comments at an October City Council meeting.
“Everybody wants to park in front of the restaurant that they want to go to,” she continued. “They don’t want to park at the garage and walk over and figure out how to use the metered parking.”
Marcus Gilbert, Easton’s parking operation manager, said that the city has looked into lowering fees so more people could park in the garage. Easton’s garage fees fluctuate throughout the year and throughout the day. Between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m., it costs $3 an hour to park from May to October and $1 an hour from November through April. During all months, garage parking costs 50 cents an hour between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Dennis Lieb, a former member of the Easton Planning Commission and long-time Easton resident, called for free parking in garages.
“If you want to get the people off of the street, you have to make it the most expensive spot in order to fill your garage up,” he said. Lieb has worked on several personal projects examining local parking garage operations and hypothesized that a parking garage should “ideally be 85% full.”
“The city could come up with a fair leasing agreement with the owners of those parking lots to park vehicles there,” Lieb said, claiming that such a plan could help with large-scale events like Bacon Fest.
The city is currently offering three hours of free parking at the Third Street Garage during the operating hours of the Easton Winter Village.
Meanwhile, street parking is often full, causing some business owners to worry.
“If somebody can’t find parking after five minutes, they’re like ‘Okay, I’m going home,’” said Dani Lockhard, the owner of Token 249, a store located in the middle of downtown.
She added that she has observed drivers parking in the middle of the street because of a lack of parking spots.
Pintabone, who grew up in Easton, attributed parking frustrations to Easton’s downtown growth in the past decade.
“It was easy to park where you wanted to years ago,” he said. “Businesses weren’t making any money because nobody wanted to come.”
Parking needs changed following a city initiative to shift to meter parking in 2019.
“That change marked a staunch difference between the overall dynamics that I had experienced living downtown, where it used to be somewhat easy to find a parking spot,” said Kira Millick, an Easton resident.
Another Easton resident, Toni Mitman, cited retail growth in Easton. She said the growth has caused moving vans, delivery vans and “restaurant purveyors” to take up more space.
“It’s changed the character of the whole street and it’s eliminated a lot of the metered parking,” Mitman said.
According to Easton’s central business district map, there are around a dozen businesses located in Center Square. 30 parking spaces are present in the circle.
Pintabone emphasized that the city is “doing well with it, but we just have more people coming down than ever before.”
At an August special City Council meeting, or “parking summit,” Pintabone pitched an idea of revitalizing a city bus system. Easton, among other municipalities and the Lehigh Valley, has looked into creating more public transportation opportunities.
Pintabone met with city officials, Lehigh Valley municipalities and college President Nicole Hurd last month to discuss ideas. Hurd deferred comment to college spokesperson Scott Morse, and Morse did not respond to questions in time for publication.
“Parking is actually your inventory,” Lieb said. “If you think of a store, if the shelves are empty, nobody’s going to come in and shop there. If you come downtown and you have no parking, people can’t park and do anything.”
A correction was made on December 9, 2024: A previous version of this article misspelled Dennis Lieb’s last name.
