Annville passes parking ordinance that prohibits semi-trailer truck parking

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The Annville Township Board of Commissioners approved by 4-1 vote a new parking ordinance that includes prohibition of semi-trailer parking on the township’s streets.

The ordinance closely aligns most parking rules with regulations for Palmyra Borough, which in 2024 merged its police department with Annville’s to create the Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department.

Thomas Embich cast the dissenting vote over the semi-trailer parking ban. Annville’s “sub roads” and dead-end streets can accommodate semis without interfering with traffic or other parked vehicles, he said.

“I don’t think that’s right,” Embich said. “The guy (truck driver) is trying to make a living with his truck there and going in and out and there’s no other circumstances.”

“People call and complain about tractor-trailers a lot,” Western Lebanon County Regional Police Chief Andrew Winters replied. “In Palmyra, they don’t park anywhere. There’s signs up all over the place. When people complain about it in Annville, there’s nothing to address it.”

Section 15-413 of township ordinance 703 makes it unlawful to park on Annville streets “any commercial vehicle, boat, recreational vehicle, house trailer, camper trailer, boat trailer, trailer or any other nonmotorized vehicle.”

There are exceptions. Recreational vehicles may load and unload for up to 48 consecutive hours on property fronting the street in question if the police department is notified.

Contractors also may park their vehicles, trailers and equipment on the street fronting their projects only after notifying police of the location, duration, and starting date of their work.

Coordinating Annville’s public parking regulations with Palmyra’s shifts enforcing those regulations from the township to the joint police department, township manager Candie Johnson said. Prosecution of alleged parking violators can take the township months to process, she said.

Even before the new ordinance, Annville’s parking regulations were “more voluminous” than Palmyra’s, Johnson said, because of such factors as parking needs for Lebanon Valley College located in the township.

The board also approved, by 5-0 vote, a request to turn the intersection of Chestnut Street and Sheridan Avenue into a four-way stop.

Increasingly congested traffic through the township is Annville’s greatest ongoing issue, and approval of the Chestnut-Sheridan four-way stop prompted public works supervisor Les Powell to recommend an additional four-way stop at Chestnut Street and Cherry Street. Township solicitor Megan Ryland Tanner asked Powell to create a list for future discussion of other potential four-way stops.

Annville Cleona Fire Department safety officer and Municipal Relations representative Dustin Sider handed the board a copy of Lebanon County’s just-completed “Regionalization Study,” for six municipalities in the county covered by five fire companies. The study contemplates consolidation of the fire companies under one department or maintaining them as independent entities, renovation or relocation of Annville Cleona Station 5, a new fire station and a plan for fair and equitable funding among the departments.

The study concludes that as volunteer firefighters age out it will be necessary to hire full-time firefighters within 10 years, Sider said.

In other business:

• Celebrate! Annville’s Matt Woolson told commissioners the group needs to downsize its plans to buy flower baskets using excess funds received from contributions to its annual Christmas decorations for the township. Commissioners on Aug. 8 endorsed Celebrate! Annville’s proposal to contribute about 40 flower baskets throughout the township as part of the PA250 celebration during the 2026 U.S. semiquincentennial. Woolson told the board that 40 flower baskets would cost about $12,000 for the baskets alone, so the group now proposes eight baskets to go up on Main Street after the new year, but with hopes for future expansion, at a cost to Celebrate! Annville of about $2,500.
• The board approved, 5-0, an ordinance to prevent and deter the installation, maintenance, and use of police and fire alarms that provide repetitious false alarms. The ordinance requires alarm suppliers and current alarm holders to register their alarm with the police department. See the full ordinance here (PDF).
• A user fee study that considers whether to lower the base sewer service rates from a 10,000 gallons per quarter minimum to 7,500 gallons per quarter will be presented to the township’s municipal authority by consulting firm GFT, formerly Gannett Flemming, on Nov. 18, Johnson said. This is to lower rates for the “Social Security person” who often consumes far less than 7,500 gallons a quarter at a base rate of 10,000 gallons, she said. The township also is considering the separation of base sewer rates between residential and commercial customers.
• The board approved, 4-1, a modification request for Stone Hill Village Phase 3, as outlined at the township board’s Aug. 8 meeting. Anthony Perrotto cast the dissenting vote.
• The board voted to accept a $115,056.66 completion bond for BlueScope Building of North America’s stormwater permit for its pump house and approved BlueScope’s stormwater management operations and maintenance agreement.
• The board approved, 5-0, returning $21,356 in escrow to Synergy Health Dept. and Chrisland Engineering for completion of their construction.
• The board approved advertisement of the 2026 township budget and advertisement of the 2026 tax levy and appropriations ordinance. The board will vote on whether to adopt the budget at its next meeting on Dec. 2.
• The board approved restricting South Lancaster Street and U.S. Route 422 to Cumberland Street to a one-way thoroughfare the week of Nov. 17 in order to set up its Christmas tree.

Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication to clarify the purpose of the ordinance related to fire and police alarms. The ordinance does not prohibit the installation, maintenance and use of police and fire alarms to civilian buildings, as was originally reported, but rather regulates their use by creating a police registry of such devices and stipulating penalties for false alarms. We sincerely regret the error.