Planning Partnership eyes downtown parking

Hockessin Community News
Monday, October 26, 2009

Now that the Old Lancaster Pike Streetscape project is under way, the Hockessin Planning Partnership has set its sights on upgrading parking along the soon-to-be-improved road. 



Improving downtown parking is part of the Hockessin Village Plan and at one time was slated for construction, before drainage problems derailed the plan, said HPP President Ken Murphy. 



Now HPP is helping to organize a regional drainage study, for the entire footprint of the village, to see if the Cockeysville aquifer beneath it can handle the extra impervious cover of improved parking, Murphy said. 



Five legislators - Sens. Liane Sorenson (R-Hockessin), Patty Blevins (D-Elsmere) and Mike Katz (D-Centreville), as well as Reps. Nick Manolakos (R-Limestone Hills) and Debbie Hudson (R-Fairthorne) - have ponied up $6,700 each to fund the study, adding to an existing $17,000 already earmarked, said Janet Kilpatrick, House of Representatives Republican Caucus aide. 



The New Castle Conservation District will use that money to hire a professional to conduct the study, Kilpatrick said, and present the findings to legislators. 



The study will take at least four months to complete, Murphy estimated. 



HPP members discussed re-paving the Swift Park lots and adding a small amount of parking, though the Village Plan calls for new parking garages behind Old Lancaster Pike businesses. 



It's too early to be designing new parking until the drainage study is done, Murphy said, but it's also too early to rule anything out.