The State College Borough Council voted last Monday to reinstate in-lieu parking, a practice that permits residential developers to pay a $18,750 fee per parking space to the borough for spaces not built on the property.

The developers must provide 90 percent of the required parking with the additional 10 percent being paid off by the in-lieu fee per space. This proposition brings up the residential parking debate -- whether developers should be responsible for parking for their residents. Also, this brings to mind the exorbitant rates landlords charge for on-site parking.

As council member Elizabeth Goreham said, "[P]eople like to park where they live." Unfortunately for students who live in apartments throughout the borough, the cost of parking at residences can be high, especially with the cost of rent.

Despite the steep cost of parking where students live, the money the borough receives from developers will go to a general parking fund that promises to address at least some of the ills that plague the State College parking situation. Whereas the students living in the borough will go on having the same amount of parking spaces and paying overpriced installments for residential parking, the borough could be armed with some funding with which it can focus on parking and traffic concerns.

The State College Borough, because of expenses, did not enact its free holiday parking. There is one new apartment complex being built within the next year, so the borough may be able to receive money to help with parking concerns. The developer will have to put 90 percent of the required parking spaces and may have to pay the borough to make up for the difference. If not, the borough doesn't lose anything, because the developer will put 100 percent of the required spaces.

For the borough, this is a good situation, either the required amount of parking spaces will be maintained by developers or developers must pay them $18,750 per space not fulfilled.

Some have voiced concern that the reinstatement of in-lieu parking could motivate residential developers to create more parking lots, which take up more space and cost less than underground parking garages.The logic is that paving over a dirt lot near an apartment building is a more cost-effective than constructing underground garages that fit with the council's plan for downtown.

We hope developers will not do this, and look for more creative ways to have parking for residents downtown. Not every student will want to bring a car, and as long as there is parking available for those who wish to park on site, the fee paid for in-lieu parking is fair.