Managing editor
The parking issue on North Cedar Street just doesn’t seem to go away — or to be resolved.
Marion City Council discussed the issue again Monday. Council members said they have heard both sides from those who live on North Cedar Street — some are in favor of continuing to allow parking on the east side of the street. Others do not want parking allowed.
The argument to allow parking on one side is that it actually slows down traffic because drivers sometimes have to wait for traffic to pass before driving around a parked vehicle.
Councilman Bill Holdeman made a motion for parking to remain as it is and Steven Smith seconded the motion. Mayor Mary Olson and Stacey Collett voted against the motion, causing the motion to fail. Councilman Gene Winkler was absent from the meeting.
The two opposing council members want to see restricted parking.
“I would like to see an ordinance for all residents to provide their own off-street parking,” Collett said. “If people are going to own three cars, they need to have a place to park them.”
He added that he didn’t want to see vehicles parked across sidewalks to accommodate off-street parking.
Smith said that families with teen drivers would have more than three vehicles.
There are alleys accessible on most of North Cedar Street, allowing off-street parking. However, city officials believe alleys are not for traffic but for utility purposes only.
Not everyone agreed with that opinion.
Jeff Cady owns two properties on North Cedar Street. When discussion was heard regarding a fence in an alley in the 400 block of North Cedar Street and the council was considering making the alley one-way to alleviate a safety issue, Cady said he was “totally opposed to making the alley one way.”
“I’m concerned about the comment that alleys aren’t for public use,” Cady said. “It severely limits use of my properties.”
He continued that he had to use the alley to access his garage.
The council had discussed at previous meetings the issue of the private fence that is causing a safety concern. The height and location of the fence limits visibility of northbound alley motorists as they approach Hudson Street.
City Attorney Dan Baldwin said if the council was going to require this property owner on North Cedar Street to remove a fence from a city right-of-way, then he anticipates there will be other requests for similar encroachments.
He suggested the fence be cut and angled away from the corner or the city could make the alley one-way. The ultimate solution would be to require the property owner to remove the fence entirely from the city’s right of way, Baldwin said.
A survey would be needed to determine the city’s property lines.
“We know the fence is on city property,” Collett said.
“But to prove it, we need to have it surveyed,” Olson said.
The council tabled a decision until Baldwin talked with the property owners.
City will give away parking lot
Jim Cloutier, owner of the Historic Elgin Hotel, has requested an opportunity to acquire the city-owned parking lot, west of his building. The property owner wants to own the parking lot so he can construct a garage for his personal use and improve the surface of the parking lot for his patrons.
The council agreed to deed it to Cloutier for a nominal fee with the conditions that the city could continue to park city-owned vehicles on the west end of the property and improvements would be made on the parking lot within a reasonable amount of time.
An agreement will be drafted and presented to the council at the next meeting.