Parking Spaces

HAGERSTOWN - Hagerstown city officials could loosen the requirement on the number of parking spaces that developers have to provide when they build new housing downtown. Earlier this week, City Comprehensive Planner Stuart Bass recommended that the City Council require developers to provide one parking space for each one-bedroom unit. The existing requirement is for two spaces per unit across the board, he said. For each additional bedroom per unit, the requirement would increase a half space.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - In two weeks, the Chambersburg Borough Council will vote on the final land development plan for an expanded Chambersburg Area Senior High School, opening the way for the district to put the project out for bids. On Monday, the council reviewed the plan, which was discussed at the Sept. 4 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. The plan will be on the consent agenda for the council's Sept. 24 meeting. "We want it to go out for bids in November and award contracts in December," Chambersburg Area School District Superintendent Joseph Padasak said.

HAGERSTOWN - Insufficient parking and high construction costs were just a few of the problems that a recent study found might be slowing development in downtown Hagerstown. The results of that study, which was conducted by Hagerstown Neighborhood Development Partnership Inc., were presented to the City Council during a Tuesday work session. Sharon Disque of HNDP told the council that more than 500,000 square feet of vacant space is available downtown for renovation. That space is above street level and, in some cases, might cost a developer millions of dollars to renovate, she said.

Use fairgrounds for music festivals To the editor: Well, here we go again, running people out of their parking spaces so that the city can make a buck or two off of your poor people with this music fest. Tell me you founding fathers, what are you keeping the fairgrounds for? Why don't you hold these shingdigs out at the fairgrounds instead of putting the people downtown out? I live at the parking lot and I for one don't like the so-called music. We have good, hard-working people who need these parking spaces that you're taking from them.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - People attending Waynesboro Area Senior High School's graduation Friday will be asked to park away from the school's construction site and board shuttle buses taking them to the ceremony. Family and friends of graduates will be asked to park at the middle school and Summitview Elementary School campuses, where nine or 10 buses will take them to Indian Stadium. The pickup point following graduation will be just east of the intersection of Virginia Avenue and East Second Street.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - Hundreds of people attending graduation at Waynesboro Area Senior High School will be shuttled to the football field on school buses through a system approved Tuesday by the school board. The high school lost 251 parking spaces as part of ongoing construction, Superintendent Barry Dallara wrote in a memo to the board. Family and friends of graduates will be asked to park at the middle school and Summitview Elementary School campuses, where nine or 10 buses will take them to Indian Stadium.

Downtown parking rules discussed The Hagerstown Planning Commission resumed discussions Wednesday on decreasing the number of parking spaces that developers are required to provide with rehabilitated buildings downtown. The existing three-space requirement is unreasonable and makes things too difficult for developers to restore buildings for residential use, said Stuart Bass, the city's comprehensive planner. Planning commission members expressed concern that the parking space requirement is scaring developers away.

To the editor: The readers of the Herald-Mail are in for a treat: No Iraq civil war, no Bible verses, no hospital complaints, no political arguments, no grammar correction, no ill-treated veterans outrage, no gas price increase anger, no teacher salary pros and cons, no illegal immigrant resentment; only a subject that affects everyone: Handicapped parking. All of us have seen the blue signs with the white wheelchair. The question is, where are those signs located? The new post office near the Long Meadow Shopping Center has six regular parking spaces, closest to the building entrance.

HAGERSTOWN - As snow and ice lingered Friday on Hagerstown's streets, shovelers flexed their muscles to clear out parking spaces. Many left chairs, garbage cans, ironing boards or any objects they could find to claim and protect those spaces. Police say the spot-claiming techniques are illegal and obstruct traffic. Residents say spot-saving is necessary. Around noon, in the 500 block of North Locust Street, Sherman Lynn stopped his Dodge Grand Caravan just short of his house.

and ANDREW SCHOTZ andrews@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN As snow and ice lingered Friday on Hagerstown's streets, shovelers flexed their muscles to clear out parking spaces. Many left chairs, garbage cans, ironing boards or any objects they could find to claim and protect those spaces. Police say the spot-claiming techniques are illegal and obstruct traffic. Residents say spot-saving is necessary. Around noon, in the 500 block of North Locust Street, Sherman Lynn stopped his Dodge Grand Caravan just short of his house.