Collingswood wants to cut hair salon’s free parking

A clash between Collingswood and a local hair salon about the future of a free parking lot has sparked fierce social media reactions and an online petition against “seizing” private property.

Some local residents agree with the borough that the poorly lit 60-space lot behind a row of businesses on the resurgent 600 block of West Collings Avenue needs better maintenance and security.

But Robert Giordano, who owns three properties on the block as well as the parking area behind SalonG, which his daughters Jamie and Christina operate, said convenience for clients and employees is essential to the success of the business.

Giordano and the borough each own a quarter of the lot. Vijay Patel, who owns three commercial properties at the corner of Collings and White Horse Pike, has the other half. He said he’s weighing the pros and cons of selling.

“I don’t care what they do with the rest of the parking lot. My daughters need the parking spaces that came with the building,” Robert Giordano said Monday.

“There’s no trouble on that part of the lot, and they keep it clean,” he said. “What do [borough officials] mean, that they need to ‘take’ the parking lot to make it into a paid parking lot? I own it fair and square.”

On April 1, Mayor Jim Maley and the two other commissioners in this Camden County borough unanimously approved a resolution to authorize negotiations to acquire the privately owned portions of the lot, with eminent domain — which allows government to purchase property and convert it to a public use — as a last resort. The plan is to create an entirely borough-owned pay lot with better lighting and designated spaces.

Maley said the borough has long been concerned about the condition of the lot, especially after volunteers found used syringes there during a cleanup.

“Eminent domain is a process that requires five distinct steps, and we have done none of them,” Maley said Tuesday. “We have told the property owners that we are getting a concept plan together and [then] sitting down and talking with them. This is not eminent domain. Not at all.”

Christina and Jamie Giordano both said that despite having clearly expressed no interest in selling, they felt pressure to do so during occasional email exchanges and informal meetings with borough officials. At first, the conversations were about improving the lot, then about granting an easement, and finally, about selling, they said.

The sisters also said neither they nor their father was notified that the resolution related to their parking area would be on the commission’s April 1 agenda. All three attended that session after seeing a notice in the Retrospect newspaper, which first reported on the dispute.

“We share the parking lot pretty much with everybody, no questions asked,” Jamie Giordano said in an interview. “We would like that to continue, at no charge.”

Christina Giordano said the sisters “don’t just work here. We’re part of the community, and we’ve done a lot to help revitalize the area.”

Traditionally known as West Collingswood, the section of the borough between the White Horse Pike, the Newton Creek, and the Collings Avenue railroad crossing generally gets less attention than the Haddon Avenue business district and other parts of the nearly two-square mile borough of 14,150.

Most of Collingswood’s major events, including the farmers market, the book festival, and the craft and fine art festival, are held on or near Haddon Avenue.

The 600 block of West Collings is home to three well-regarded restaurants: Zeppoli, Kiko’s Peruvian Kitchen, and Le Beirut. A landmark drug store, convenience stores, personal care businesses and, soon, a photography studio, operate along Collings, and the Scottish Rite Auditorium and event venue is two blocks away.

And although storefront vacancies spread during the pandemic, newer businesses such as Jeffrey “Jeff Money” Still’s Best Kept Secret barbershop are going strong.

“It’s a wonderful location,” said Still, a retired Camden firefighter who’s been cutting hair at various locations since the late 1980s. He launched his barbershop on the 600 block in 2020.

“When I opened, there weren’t as many businesses, but it’s gotten better and better,” said Still, adding that the availability of parking “is a very welcoming [amenity] for my clients.”

Kelly McGinnis, one of the organizers of the West Collingswood Revitalization Committee, said the group has had several cleanups in and around the 600 block. She and her family moved to the west side in 2013.

“This area hadn’t gotten the same kind of resources as other parts of Collingswood,” McGinnis said. “I wanted to see more attention for our really wonderful businesses and for beautifying an area that looked like it was struggling.”

McGinnis also said she hopes the parking lot issue can be resolved. “From what I’ve heard, there just hasn’t been consensus among the owners of making improvements. So nothing has been done. We [the committee] are just a bunch of volunteers, and we want to see [the lot] taken care of.”

Some of the several hundred posts about the parking lot on the In the Wood, Collingswood Facebook page are critical of Maley. Having served as mayor for nearly a quarter-century, during which the once-sleepy Haddon Avenue business district evolved into a lively regional destination, he has earned a reputation for getting things done, including, done his way.

“People are grateful for what he’s done, but he has a lot of power. Like in a dictatorship,” Robert Giordano said.

Said David Shin, the pharmacist-in-charge at Ames Drug Store, a landmark at the corner West Collings and Richey Avenues: “It’s not my fight, but I will help [the Giordano sisters] any way I can.”

“I was shocked that the borough was going to use eminent domain to force them to sell their property,” he said. “I couldn’t believe they would go that far. If they can do this to [the Giordanos], they can do it to anybody.”

SalonG customer Kirina Seixas, whose home is not far from the parking lot, said the block-long expanse “is being used as a cut-through” by pedestrians, making litter a chronic problem. She supports the efforts of the revitalization committee, but said it could accomplish more “without the borough as the middleman.”

“There is still an opportunity to work together, and I would like to see that happen,” Borough Commissioner Rob Lewandowski said.

“We can try to mediate the differences, and if that doesn’t work, use a tool like eminent domain to take possession of the property and get rid of the conflicts of use and the conditions that are substandard, and maximize use of that space in a way that will benefit the businesses and people coming to the area.

“And that doesn’t always happen on the west side of town.”