Parking lot to be auctioned again

The Borough Council agreed to put the Harrison Street parking lot back on the market with the hope that the property will be developed.

At its meeting March 9, the council decided to put the lot at 11-17 Harrison St. up for auction without a minimum bid and with no restrictions.

The lot was put up for auction at the end of 2022 with a minimum bid of $106,900 but received no bids.

The borough recently sold the Crescent Theatre for $159,000.

Borough attorney Frank McGovern said officials previously discussed adding a restriction that a section of the lot must be reserved as parking for neighboring property.

Mayor Edward Meyer said the borough now rents out 18 parking spots. The only way for it to maintain the parking spots would be to subdivide the property.

“And then we’re getting involved in more expenses and more money,” he said. “I think we should just sell it the way it is and see what kind of efforts we get.”

Councilman Mario Poggi asked where people would park if the lot were sold.

“If somebody buys it, they could rent out all the parking spaces,” Councilman Charles Fronheiser said. “It might not only be 18. It might be 25. I don’t know how big it is. They could turn it into a parking lot if that’s what they want to do.”

Meyer said the borough would prefer that a buyer develop the property.

Council members also discussed the possibility of creating a community garden in connection with Norwescap, a nonprofit organization that assists low-income residents.

About $500 is available to create the garden.

Community members would decide how the garden is set up: as a shared garden or as individual plots for different residents.

Dianna Morrison, director of the Pathways 2 Prosperity program at Norwescap, said Sussex has received a grant of about $325,000 for Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit program.

”For the first year of submitting projects, to get that amount of money is really quite an accomplishment,” she said.

Norwescap was seeking $584,400 to ensure two affordable units in a former bank building being renovated as luxury apartments and set up a business incubator with graphic design and 3D printing services in a new space at the Sussex Borough Community and Cultural Center among other projects.

The council president, Robert Holowach, was absent from the meeting.