During last night’s meeting of Conshohocken’s Borough Council we learned that the owner of the gravel lot (red triangle) next to The Outbound Station has decided to terminate the lease with SEPTA of that lot. That means that people traveling by SEPTA and those using the Schuylkill River Trail on the weekends will not be be able to park there. The lease terminates on December 15th.

This has led to a scramble by SEPTA and the borough to come up with alternative parking spots. It appears that an existing grant obtained by O’Neill Properties will cover a good portion of the cost of redoing the existing lot on the river side of the tracks (green rectangle), which prior to this issue was going to enhance the number of spots, but will now basically replace what is going to be lost and add about 20 spots. The Borough is considering using some of the impact fee to be paid by O’Neill Properties in relation to the new apartment community at 51 Washington (blue box) to cover a portion of the cost, plus they hope SEPTA will contribute.

The big immediate issue is that the improved lot won’t be ready by December 15th. SEPTA and the Borough are trying to work out a deal with another nearby property owner to allow for some temporary parking to alleviate the issue.

Long term the parking issues in the SEPTA areas are going to be improved by a parking garage SEPTA is looking at building. There will also be improvements to the actual station, etc. You could also see the train station move further up river closer to The Grande.