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Proposed Permit Parking District L
Amendment
Permit Parking District L was established by City Council Resolution No. 2008-60 on September 15, 2008 and consists Edwards Street (frontage road) between Freeborn Drive and Meadow Crest Drive, and Meadow Crest Drive between Edwards Street and Northfield Lane. The initial proposed amendment is to include Freeborn Drive between Edwards Street (frontage road) and Northfield Lane.
The location of the neighborhood is west of Edwards Street south of Warner Avenue and is shown on the vicinity map below.
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Residents along Freeborn Drive have requested to be included in the Permit Parking District L. They submitted a petition to add their addresses to District L due to on-street parking impacts from the nearby apartments and condominiums with the same parking restrictions as the current district (midnight to 6 a.m., every day, holidays included). Figure 1 shows the current and initial requested permit parking areas for Parking District L.
Figure 1. Existing and Proposed Permit Parking Areas for Permit Parking District L
As required by Municipal Code Chapter 10.42, staff reviewed the request, determined the petition and concerns of the residents were valid, and considered the proposed amendment area to be reasonable.
Due to the potential parking impacts moving to nearby streets should the requested permit parking area be implemented, staff included Englewood Circle, Northfield Lane, and the first block of Erwin Lane to vote on the proposal. The Municipal Code allows staff to modify the originally proposed
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boundaries of the proposal that may be affected by permit parking to provide the opportunity to be included as if part of the original request. The streets selected to vote on potentially being added to Parking District L are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Streets Selected to Vote on Permit Parking Proposal
Staff prepared and mailed letters to the identified properties explaining the permit parking district requirements, boundaries, and included ballots for voting on the parking district amendment.
Per Municipal Code 10.42 a minimum of 75% of the property units (1 vote per unit) shall be in favor of the permit parking district amendment to move the request for further consideration. Of the 52 identified properties, 34 ballots were returned with 20 votes in favor of the permit parking district amendment. The voting results are graphically summarized in Figure 3.
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Figure 3. Percent of Property Units in Support of Permit Parking
Englewood Circle, Northfield Lane, and the first block of Irwin Lane voting results showed limited interest with establishing permit parking and were removed from consideration. On Freeborn Drive between Irwin Lane and Northfield Lane 50 percent voted in favor of the proposal. The voting results on Freeborn Drive between Northfield Lane and Edwards St showed the most interest with 92% of the properties voting in support of permit parking. Combining the two street sections on Freeborn Drive between Erwin Lane and Edwards St resulted in 78% in favor of permit parking.
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As required by code staff investigated the parking conditions on Freeborn Drive. The code requires that facts exist that reasonably establish that unrestricted parking creates a situation in which the subject streets cannot be used for regular parking by residents or their guests, or creates a situation that commuter vehicles or their occupants produce significant sources of health, safety, or welfare concerns to continue the process for further consideration. Below summarizes the on-street parking information gathered from field surveys of the area.
Street
No. Parked
Vehicles
Parking
Capacity
Percent
Occupancy
Freeborn Drive, north side (Northfield to Edwards) 6 11 55% Freeborn Drive, south side (Northfield to Edwards) 4 14 29% Freeborn Drive, north side (Erwin to Northfield) 3 6 50% Freeborn Drive, south side (Erwin to Northfield) 2 6 33% Table 1. Weekday AM Parking Survey
Street No. Parked
Vehicles
Parking
Capacity
Percent
Occupancy
Freeborn Drive, north side (Northfield to Edwards) 8 11 73% Freeborn Drive, south side (Northfield to Edwards) 7 14 50% Freeborn Drive, north side (Erwin to Northfield) 1 6 17% Freeborn Drive, south side (Erwin to Northfield) 2 6 33% Table 2. Weekday PM Parking Survey
Street No. Parked
Vehicles
Parking
Capacity
Percent
Occupancy
Freeborn Drive, north side (Northfield to Edwards) 9 11 82% Freeborn Drive, south side (Northfield to Edwards) 8 14 57% Freeborn Drive, north side (Erwin to Northfield) 2 6 33% Freeborn Drive, south side (Erwin to Northfield) 1 6 17% Table 3. Weekend AM Parking Survey
Street No. Parked
Vehicles
Parking
Capacity
Percent
Occupancy
Freeborn Drive, north side (Northfield to Edwards) 9 11 82% Freeborn Drive, south side (Northfield to Edwards) 7 14 50% Freeborn Drive, north side (Erwin to Northfield) 2 6 33% Freeborn Drive, south side (Erwin to Northfield) 1 6 17% Table 4. Weekday PM Parking Survey
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Analysis:
Field reviews of the area showed that the north side of Freeborn Drive between Northfield Lane and Edwards Street experiences high parking use from commuter vehicles with the greatest demand occurring on the weekend. This could be due to being more convenient as vehicles are most likely arriving from the east from Edwards St and the north side is an area with an open parking segment without driveways. On-street parking along the south portion is not as impacted as the north side but appears some commuter vehicle parking occurs on the south side. For this parking district amendment request the residents only expressed concerns with the commuter vehicle parking and the availability of on-street parking for themselves and guests.
Municipal Code 10.42 requires that specific conditions shall exist for a parking district request to move forward for consideration to the City Manager’s office. These include: unrestricted parking creates a situation where on-street parking cannot be regularly used by residents and guests; or, unrestricted parking by commuter vehicles produces significant sources of health, safety, or welfare concerns.
Based on the field evaluations and discussions with the residents staff finds that the unrestricted parking on Freeborn Drive creates a situation where the commuter parking regularly interferes with residents and their guests parking. Staff supports amending Permit Parking District L and recommends adding the properties along Freeborn Drive between Erwin Lane and Edwards Street to the current parking district (Figure 4). Of those 18 properties, 78% (14 of 18) voted in favor of permit parking due to commuter vehicle parking impacts.
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Figure 4. Recommended Permit Parking Addition to Parking District L.