Over the past year and a half or so, our neighborhood grass roots group has participated in many commission, committee, and Borough council meetings in an effort to make our local government aware of the real details of this garage plan.  Until our group's involvement, Borough Council members admitted they didn't even realize the Borough was the building applicant in this garage land development plan.  The main purpose of the Borough's participation in the cooperative partnership with WCU to build the parking garage, according to Borough Management, was to reduce University student related parking problems in the neighborhoods.  In a Daily Local News article, dated 10/11/07, a Borough council member is quoted as saying "... the Council thought we were doing a good thing for residents by getting University parking off the street and into a garage.  Over the course of the year, we heard things we did not know before.  The parts of town that do have problems would not be served by the garage."  A different Council member in the same newspaper article said that when Council moved forward with the agreement, they believed the garage would abate parking problems, but now they felt the garage would be used to replace parking that will be lost on campus if the University builds a recreation center.

The recreation center and other WCU facilities brings us to the topic of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), or in this case, the binding agreement that the Borough Council entered into in 2006 with West Chester University.  On page three of the MOU it is clearly stated that the Borough of West Chester is building and financing the parking garage to accommodate the expansion plans of WCU, namely, new housing facilities and a recreation center.  The University is externalizing its main campus expansion plans into a residential neighborhood using the Borough resident's credit line, municipal bonds.  Public financial resources are paying for a WCU parking garage that serves no benefit to the taxpaying residents of the Borough.  Why is the Borough building and financing a parking garage for WCU use? We have yet to hear, from our local government officials, a rational answer to that question.  Probably because one does not exist. 

Over the course of several weeks we plan on posting, to this website, explanations and documents we have assembled over the past months that we hope will clarify why we think this garage plan is not only inequitable, but why this deal is detrimental to all Borough residents, not just those in proximity to the proposed garage site.  This affair is not one of those "not in my backyard" issues.  It should be made very clear to all Borough residents that the failings of our local government officials and its employees makes this a "not in my Borough" issue.  The planning and execution of this particular land development plan is a poster child for the need of transparency in our local government's business affairs.  Stay connected to this website as we, over the coming weeks, make public the details that expose a multi-million dollar municipal fiasco.

If you have any questions or comments please contact Dave LaLeike at, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

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