/ PARKING & MOBILITY SPOTLIGHT/APO
Lancaster Parking Authority’s Road to APO
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By Larry J. Cohen, CAPP
HEN I TOOK OVER LEADERSHIP OF OUR MUNICIPAL PARKING AUTHORITY, it looked
and operated like the Wild West. I’ll leave it to my fellow parking professionals to read between the lines. I could never have imagined that fewer than 10 years later, we would achieve the top organizational credential in our industry. Earning the Accredited Parking Organization (APO) distinction is the apex of a climb for the Lancaster Parking Authority (LPA) in Lancaster, Pa. It’s the culmination of years of hard work and getting the right people in the right positions that paid off.
A Checklist The APO is essentially a rigorous checklist. It evaluates every aspect of your parking organization from A to Z, including but not limited to human resources, finances, customer service, marketing, facilities, and operations. Before you decide to begin the APO process, you should take a detailed look at your parking organization. You need to determine if the timing is right. For the LPA, it took a few years of planning, policies, and procedures before we were ready to apply. The LPA manages on- and off-street parking operations for the City of Lancaster. We are an independent municipal authority that operates like a small business. I report to a board of five members appointed by the mayor. The makeup is stated by law. We have approximately 3,650 spaces in six parking garages and surface lots and 1,200+ meters, including 40 multi-space kiosks in our central business district. We also manage the enforcement for a resident permit parking program and provide enforcement for street sweeping as required by law.
10 PARKING & MOBILITY / SEPTEMBER 2019 / PARKING-MOBILITY.ORG