The City of Mount Vernon has established no parking zones along the east side of B Avenue North in Mount Vernon.
The designation had been in front of the city council in June of this year, but questions at the meeting tabled the issue.
Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Chief Doug Shannon reviewed the no parking areas in place along the road, especially for the area surrounding the Skate Park.
“We found that a lot of people who drive to utilize the skate park use an adjacent gravel lot at a city building to park during the time they are at the skate park,” Shannon said.
Shannon said there was a mixed response from residents who would be impacted by the traffic changes in letters he received when this was first put on the agenda.
“My concern is it isn’t safe to have parking on both sides of the street and be able to get an emergency vehicle down the road,” Shannon said.
He noted that police cars and cruisers can fit down roadways with two cars parked alongside them, but it would be much more difficult for firetrucks or snow plows to do the same.
There are currently temporary no parking signs along Third Street and portions of B Avenue, due to the First Street Community Center Field being utilized for home football games. The police department only enforces the parking issues along that street on Fridays of home football games, but permanent signs means that enforcement would happen whenever a parking issuearises.
“It is important that we have safe passage along city streets for all motor vehicles,” Shannon said.
Discussions have already started about parking issues in the Stonebrook neighborhood, which will also see an increase in traffic and parking with the use of the new Mustangs Activity complex opening in late September.
Council member Debra Herrmann said she wanted the no parking signage to be clear as to what portions of the road are impacted.
Council member Paul Tuerler said his concerns was the impact to vehicles trying to traverse the curve in the road of B Avenue, that cars parked along it might impact sight lines.
Shannon said eliminating parking along one side of the street will impact traffic flow along the street, especially the speed with which they traverse the road.
Council member Craig Engel asked how easily revisions could happen if there were issues that were discovered in implementing the no parking along B Avenue.
Shannon said the matter is a resolution, which only requires one meeting in order to be passed and adjust to address what people are noticing with the changes.
“It’s easy to adjust this if we need to,” Shannon said. “Similar to Stonebrook, if we find things aren’t going as we expected, we can meet and discuss it again and make appropriate changes.”