Easton Could Seize Downtown Parking Lot

Easton City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to condemn a N. Fourth Street parking lot that could someday be the home of a new city parking garage.

The new lot could be years in the future. But to secure the land, the city plans to take the land by eminent domain from current owner Scott Kindred.

Kindred, of Martins Creek, says it won't be that easy.

"They’re going to have to pay me," he said in an interview last week. "Probably more than they think. I’m trying to derail this thing before it gets too far along."

Kindred bought the lot from Wells-Fargo in November 2010. He uses it to provide parking for his tenants, which include the Sweet Girlz Bakery, a hair salon and an insurance office.

There's room for about 25 cars now, he said, with space for maybe 10 more if he demolished the bank's former drive-through kiosk.

The city's parking study identified the lot as a good place for another garage. Mayor Sal Panto has said a parking garage there could eventually replace the one on Pine Street. 

The second garage would complement one that will be part of the city's intermodal unit. 

But Kindred also kept coming back to another point in the parking study: "Easton has enough parking; it's just mismanaged."  

Kindred said he hopes residents come to Wednesday's meeting. It's not just that he wants people to back him up. He wants to hear what they think.

"If they want it," he said, "I’ll go away."