Street Reconstruction

I believe I mentioned that our street is due to be reconstructed this year, and that I had some issues with their plans.  For the first time, I spoke to the City Council during their meeting tonight on this agenda item.  The meeting started at 6:30 pm, and I just got to speak about 9:30 pm.  I had 3 minutes to get my point across.  I was told my 3 minutes were up right before I said thank you at the end.  Pretty good timing, I'd say.

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Good evening.

My wife and I are residents of Xxxxxx Street since 2009 and I wanted to speak tonight because while we agree this part of the street needs reconstruction, some of the data used for planning appears inaccurate and other factors not considered at all.

The data that notes this block of Xxxxxx Street averages 6 vehicles parked overnight and 5 during the day is highly inaccurate.  Since we saw that, my wife and I have been counting at various times of day and found that on weekdays we average 13 vehicles parked on the street overnight and 8 during the day.  These numbers increase significantly on the weekends to 12-15 vehicles parked on the street at any given time.

Per the Parking Exhibit PDF on the city website, Xxxxxx Street is due to have parking on only the north side with just 17 parking spots available.  This is also inaccurate as 3 vehicles will not reasonably fit between any two driveways, and keep in mind that city ordinance requires no parking within 4 feet of a driveway and 2 feet between cars.  This means only 15 parking spots, which is pretty close to 1 spot for every 2 houses on the block.

It’s a pretty long block, so this is problematic for several reasons:

    1. In 2019 you built a canoe slide at the end of our street and it gets used, mostly on weekends, and they arrive in vehicles that need to park somewhere.

    2. For years now on Saturdays a house near the creek is a pickup site for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) boxes.  So there are many people coming and going, all needing somewhere to park.

    3. Work vehicles for necessary house repairs and maintenance also need to be able to park near the residence where the work is to be done.

    4. But lastly, and I think most importantly, we don’t have reasonable nearby options for parking.

        A. Xxxxxx Street residents already sometimes use our street for overnight overflow parking.

        B. There is no parking on Xxxxxx Avenue.

        C. Xxxxxx Street will likely have the same issues we will because they are due to get even less parking than Xxxxxx Street with this project.

        D. And Xxxxxx Street is hundreds of feet away for most of the houses on this block, and they have their own residents who park there.

Please listen to these concerns and reconsider these plans for a more reasonable and flexible parking solution for our neighborhood.  We love living here and would like to continue to be able to host friends and family now and again - and be able to park close to our home when it’s necessary to park on the street.

Thank you.

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Good night.