City council modifies two-hour parking restrictions
Oskaloosa City Hall
by Charlie Comfort
OSKALOOSA, IOWA- The Oskaloosa City Council addressed the issue of two-hour parking at Tuesday’s meeting, with the possibility of eliminating a two-hour parking restriction. The issue consumed much of the council’s time at their first regular meeting of September.
At the onset of Tuesday’s meeting, Julie and Trevor Wells, owners of Julie’s Homestyle Café, spoke to the city council regarding their concerns about the elimination of the two-hour parking restriction.
“It is a huge concern as a business owner with the parking downtown the way it is to not have any real parking limitation,” Julie Wells said to the council Tuesday evening. Wells added that other business owners in the downtown area have the same concerns as the council looks at revising the two-hour parking regulations in the downtown area.
Jerry Slobe, who is the owner of property on High Ave West, addressed the council with his concerns that the council keep in place the current two-hour parking restrictions.
“We’ve been experiencing a lot of problems with cars being left for several hours,” Slobe said of parking in front of his property. Slobe added that in one instance he called the police as a car had been left in front of his property for over two days.
“I was told by the officer, it couldn’t be ticketed until it was there 72 hours,” Slobe said of that instance.
Slobe also added that with the addition of more apartments in the downtown area, he and other business owners, are concerned about tenants parking their cars and leaving them for extended periods of time.
“We don’t want those people just parking in front of our businesses for two or three days at a time. That’s a real concern for us,” he said.
Also speaking was Glenda Booy, who owns True Value Hardware along with her husband Brian, who expressed her concern as to where business patrons will park if the two-hour parking ordinance is changed.
“As far as retail downtown, this is our first year in business, and we’ve done quite well, but there have been several issues as far as the parking downtown,” Booy said.
Booy asked the council what other “better” plan they have for enforcing the parking ordinance.
“I know that it does take a long time to do some shopping, do some eating and so forth, but if there’s a better plan, do you have a better plan than taking the signs away and not enforcing anything until 72 hours?” Booy also said.
Debbie Sedrel, owner of Debbie’s Merle Norman on the square also spoke to the council expressing her opposition to changing the current two-hour parking ordinance.
“When people come in to get pedicure and nails, usually it takes two hours. When I had a beauty shop, when they did all three usually it took longer, and it wasn’t a big deal for us to go outside,” Sedrel said.
During discussion of the item by the council, a divided council became apparent.
Councilmember Doug Yates said that he has received a lot of concerns from those who are in favor of eliminating the two-hour parking restrictions. However, he acknowledged those who came to the meeting to speak out against the proposed changes.
“Personally, I don’t know what way to go with this,” Yates said. “It seems like we are going to not make a group happy no matter which way we go,” he added.
Yates noted that the last time the city conducted a survey regarding downtown parking restrictions, it was split almost evenly as to whether or not to have parking restrictions in downtown Oskaloosa.
Councilmember Tom Walling noted that there had been five complaints at Tuesday evening’s city council meeting regarding parking in the downtown area. Walling said there’s usually only on average five complaints in an entire year.
“There’s some disconnect there,” Walling said. “If we aren’t going to enforce then let’s quit doing it or lets enforce it,” Walling added.
Councilmember Aaron VerSteeg said he has noticed problems with parking in front of the courthouse as well as along stretches of High Ave East near Penn Central Mall.
“I think there is some problems in town,” VerSteeg said.
Councilmember Doug Yates suggested perhaps having two-hour parking restrictions in certain problem areas as opposed other areas. He noted that in other two-hour parking areas, he has seen plenty of open parking spots.
“I see open spots all the time. It’s just seems strange to be having a lot of parking restrictions when there’s open spots galore,” Yates added.
Councilmember Joe Caligiuri expressed his concerns that with added apartments in the downtown area, parking restrictions could make it difficult on tenants of those new apartments.
“We’re going to have a parking problem,” Caligiuri said.
City Manager Michael Schrock said that if it is the desire of the council to leave two-hour parking in place for now, it would be his recommendation to have some type of “sporadic” enforcement, to ensure that the policy is being consistently followed, especially to those who may be visiting the town.
“This is kind of a no-win situation,” Schrock said.
Prior to the council voting, the council had to determine what type of hour restriction to enforce. Councilmembers Doug Yates and Tom Walling expressed their support for extending the parking restriction to a four-hour parking limit, while councilmember Aaron VerSteeg expressed his support for a two-hour parking limit, as is current policy.
Police Chief Jake McGee also expressed his concerns that a two-hour parking limit would be too short, noting that those who would be most affected by the policy would be those from out of town who come into the area to shop and eat in downtown Oskaloosa.
“I do think that two hours is not enough time. That’s based on my experience from the people who get tickets,” McGee said.
McGee, in response to a question from Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt, stated his preference for a three-hour parking restriction, noting that most communities have a three-hour parking restriction.
Ultimately, the council agreed upon a three-hour parking limit.
After further discussion, the council voted unanimously to approve the first resolution calling for changes to the downtown parking ordinance that included extending the downtown parking restriction from two hours to three hours, removing compact car parking spaces in the downtown area, changing parking spaces along 2nd Ave East by the fire station from angle to parallel, and extending a no parking zone on South 1st Street by the fire station.
In other action, the council:
Approved a resolution accepting the completion of the North C Street Curb and Gutter Replacement Project.
Approved a resolution approving pay application number two to Popson Construction for work completed on the North 3rd Street Sidewalk Project.
The next regular meeting of the Oskaloos City Council will be on September 18 at 6 pm in the City Council Chambers.
