Published: November 21, 2008 10:53 pm            

CITY OF TONAWANDA: Public vote on parking ban?

The overnight parking ban has been a hot topic in the City of Tonawanda since the spring. Now a Common Council member wants residents to decide for themselves if the ban should be lifted.

At a meeting earlier this week, Fourth Ward Councilman Rick Davis proposed subjecting the city ordinance to a public vote. Currently, the city prohibits on-street parking between 2 and 6 a.m. from December through March, and between 4 and 6 a.m. from April through November.

The issue reached the council chambers in late May, when some residents on Young and Scott streets complained that the police department ticketed them for parking on a Young Street right-of-way. The residents said it was their only option because their lots aren’t large enough to build a driveway.

The council and the mayor ultimately concluded that those residents would be allowed to park in the city’s Department of Public Works lot on Fillmore Avenue, but the residents balked at that proposal, citing safety concerns.

Davis said city residents should be the determining factor in resolving the city’s parking problem. “I think taxpayers should have a say in whether they want parking in the street or not,” he said Friday, adding that the parking ban was the No. 3 complaint he received from residents last summer while campaigning for re-election.

Davis said the proposition could be placed on the ballot either in May as part of the annual Tonawanda City School District budget vote and school board elections, or next fall when voters cast their ballots for mayor and the Common Council.

Police Chief Cindy Young has said previously that the overnight parking ban helps reduce crime, explaining that police can quickly and easily run the license plate information on a vehicle that’s parked illegally; it also means that the person who parked illegally might be up to no good.

Davis said there are pros and cons to the proposal, but that other communities such as Lockport and Buffalo make do with on-street parking. A meteorologist by profession, Davis also said Tonawanda gets less snow than Buffalo, so instances of cars being snowed in on side streets would be rare.

Another consideration would be the money the city would lose from parking tickets. Davis estimates the city gets between $30,000 and $40,000 a year. “The money shouldn’t be the reason why we don’t have overnight parking.”

If voters decide to lift the parking ban, the Common Council would then debate whether to enact alternate parking, where residents would have to park on one side of the street on certain days of the week and the other side for the remainder of the week.

Mayor Ron Pilozzi, who was out of town during Tuesday’s meeting, said he wasn’t aware that the public referendum came up for discussion and believes that lifting the parking ban shouldn’t warrant a public referendum. “I think there would be a lot of bigger issues to put to a referendum,” he said.

Pilozzi said the parking ban has been discussed in years past, “and it’s led us down the path we’ve always been on, and that’s no overnight parking.”

The mayor added that public referendums should be used “very sparingly” and that the Common Council is elected to make decisions on such issues.

Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.

        

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