Broad Street Market patrons can expect more free parking after a City Council vote tonight to change the designation of several surrounding streets.
Council voted unanimously to make James Street, William Street and N. 4th Street free, two-hour market parking from Verbeke to Sayford streets.
Previously, those streets were residential permit parking for the Marketplace neighborhood, though most of the effected blocks are lightly developed.
Council’s action capped an active few months for Harrisburg’s historic farmers market. In December council gave the all-clear for the market to transition to a nonprofit entity by approving a lease and management agreement with the newly formed Broad Street Market Alliance.
In other news tonight, City Council approved a measure to rename a city code inspection program, calling it the “Residential Rental Unit Registration Program,” and increasing the fee for landlords requesting code enforcers to inspect rental units.
This fee increase covers the cost of a code enforcer to visit the unit, a process that takes about three hours, said Council Vice President Shamaine Daniels.
Daniels said that the city and council need to be aggressive on blight and take steps to create habitable housing, especially considering the recent fatal fall from a balcony by a man leaning on a railing.
“He’s not the only one,” she said, adding that homes with mold, structural or other blight-related issues negatively impact resident’s overall health and day-to-day lives.
“It’s a huge problem if the city doesn’t intervene and tenants are at the mercy of the power of the landlord,” she said.
Though the railing that caused Mike Clark Bowers, 59, to fall from the third story of a downtown home did not violate Harrisburg codes, it did violate federal standards, Daniels said.
City Council President Wanda Williams sent nine measures, including a resolution on the Central Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which would further regionalize bus transit to committees for further discussion.
Author: Danielle Roth
