Across Easton, residents have reported struggles with limited parking as new developments reshape their neighborhoods. But ongoing parking issues have raised broader concerns about how the city manages urban growth and prioritizes community needs.

The Lafayette followed three Easton residents who have seen development change the way they can park or even live comfortably. Here are some of their stories: 

A pushback against Dutchtown Pointe

Kira Millick lives in the western side of the Downtown neighborhood — farther from the heart of the city — but in a densely populated area that has seen a new apartment infringe on her neighborhood.

She watched as Dutchtown Pointe — a 5-story, 34-unit apartment building that will be completed by the end of 2025 — rose in what has been largely a single-family residential neighborhood. In 2022, the project faced legal challenges over city violations. Now, the building is on its way to completion.

A new 10-foot-wide road called Lerch Court violated the city’s Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance, or SALDO, as city code requires a minimum of a 20-foot-wide road. The Easton Planning Commission denied a waiver to allow the narrower road, and the apartment complex eventually received city approval.

Stephanie Kobal, an attorney on behalf of ANR Development Company, said at a 2022 Easton City Council meeting that revising the street’s width “would be an absolute hardship in that it is impossible under the approved plans or under really any scenario to do so.”

“I think we tried to work with the city and we tried to work with the residents and we have redesigned the building multiple times and I believe the current design is very, very complimentary to the architecture around the street,” Monty Kalsi, the president of ANR, told Lehigh Valley Live in 2023.

ANR could not be reached for comment. 

Millick reported the space will accommodate just 29 parking spots, with the cars possibly unable to fit in the neighborhood. 

“It’s actually a road that is so small it’s not even considered an alleyway,” she said of Lerch Court.

“We have a 2-car parking space or driveway right behind our house, and that’s part of the reason I bought this house, to get away from the off-street parking issue,” she continued. “Well, now we have at least 32 to 64 new cars that will be coming behind our house on this little 10-foot wide road that doesn’t even have a sidewalk.”

Under College Hill

Lenore Beers lives on North Delaware Drive, tucked away by the Bushkill Creek and beneath College Hill. There are just under 30 homes on the street, and residents have to park on the street — or a nearby bridge — due to a lack of driveways.

“We share on-street parking with residents as well as two garages that do auto repairs, and there’s customers that park on the street,” Beers said. “It’s also not monitored, it’s free parking, essentially. So people who wisened up to it would park over there and then walk under the little tunnel to get you to Downtown.”

Beers emphasized that Easton residents shopping and working Downtown often take advantage of the free spots, blocking residents from parking close to their homes. For residents with multiple cars, the unavailable spaces add up.

“I have a neighbor who has anywhere from three to five cars parked on the bridge at any given time,” Beers said. “He doesn’t seem uncomfortable putting other people where they don’t have a spot.”

More people are moving into this neighborhood, Beers said, while one small parking lot owned by Met-Ed in the neighborhood is private property and blocked off with a chain fence, currently inaccessible for residents. Beers said it’s only open around three times a year during larger Easton events.

Beers eventually met with city officials, such as Director of Public Works Dave Hopkins. She said that while the city worked to find solutions and suggested possible parking restrictions, Hopkins told her that this could possibly cause more complications because of overnight rules or exceptions that would arise.

Hopkins could not be reached after multiple requests for comment.

In the heart of Downtown

At The Marquis, a future apartment complex built as part of a $80 million city project next to Centre Square, the lack of public oversight has also raised concerns.

Antonia Mitman, a city resident and longtime critic of Easton’s development policies, watched The Marquis — which will open this spring — break ground, and possibly break the city’s own rules.

“The whole building was moved 16 or 20 feet to the south, and it encroached on Ferry Street, which is beyond outrageous, because that’s the historic district and the historic street,” Mitman said, who hoped that “nothing would be built there,” because of the lack of city green space.

Mitman questioned the Easton Historical District on why this occurred, but “nobody seemed to know how it happened.” City Center Director of Planning and Construction Robert DiLorenzo said that The Marquis went through a strict approval process with the Easton Planning Commission in 2023 — perhaps benefiting parking in the long run, according to DiLorenzo. He said the building was only shifted south by 10 feet, and the move was necessary because of utility concerns.

DiLorenzo said the city “could easily lose 50 to 80 parking spaces in that garage,” because of the layout of parking aisles. He said that there will no longer be on-street parking next to The Marquis on Ferry Street because of the encroachment.

“There is parking on Pine Street that’s being picked up,” DiLorenzo continued. “And there is on street parking on Pine Street along The Marquis on the north side of the building that people can park at. So it was just kind of a trade-off between Pine and Ferry.”

“If there’s ever any federal funding, like urban renewal funding, or anything for the municipality, you must go before the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in Washington and say, here are the plans,” Mitman said; the project location falls in the nationally registered Easton Historic District.

Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or CFR, states that “the goal of consultation is to identify historic properties potentially affected by the undertaking, assess its effects and seek ways to avoid, minimize or mitigate any adverse effects on historic properties,” which Mitman cited as a law overlooked by the city.

DiLorenzo said the city got the funding and historical district roadblocks approved as well.

He added that the project has “exceeded city requirements,” by offering 302 parking spots to the 264 apartment units that are nearing completion.

What’s next for parking?

In December 2024, city councilman Frank Pintabone told The Lafayette that city officials had planned to convene and provide a new parking plan towards the end of the year. In February, Pintabone clarified that the city is “compiling data” on parking garages and metered parking, and hoping to make recommendations to the council soon. He cited a technical issue with the 3rd Street Garage, delaying the study.

Pintabone affirmed that parking challenges are because of the city’s strong growth and commercial success.

“Unfortunately for parking, Easton is doing very well,” he said, citing that heavy restaurant and event attendance is making it difficult to find on-street parking. Large swaths of parking garages, meanwhile, continue to run vacant.

Paul Felder, a Lafayette College instructor and Easton resident, argued that “not only is there no overall strategy of how we’re going to use on-street parking, off-street parking in downtown, but there’s no plan.”

“There’s insufficient expertise to figure this stuff out,” he said of parking. “It should all be related to new apartments, what you can do to encourage commercial use.”

“There needs to be public meetings between the citizens and city hall, where there’s consensus building on all of these projects,” Mitman said. “And none of that really happens. It was always, ‘Here’s the project. It’s being built. If you don’t like it, then too bad.'”