Borough officials will try to come up with a “reasonable” alternative to the aborted plan, said Mayor Menna. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council has scrapped a plan to implement alternate-side parking that found little public support.
At its regular meeting Wednesday night, the council voted to kill an already-introduced ordinance that would have mandated the parked-car switcheroo on a weekly basis, in conjunction with more frequent street sweeping.
Following complaints, that version of the law was tabled last month, and at its July 3 workshop session, the council informally agreed to make the parking law monthly, rather than weekly.
The modified version was expected to be introduced Wednesday.
But Mayor Pasquale Menna, who had pronounced the weekly schedule “impossible,” got an earful about even the monthly plan.
“That proposed ordinance has gone through a lot of revisions, it’s gone through a lot of comments,” he said at the meeting. But “in light of the substantial comments generated,” the plan in its current state should be rejected, he said.
Residents of Elm Place submitted a petition opposing either version of the proposed law. Among their objections: that some homeowners don’t have off-street parking; that their street is used for parking by students at Red Bank Catholic High; that it would likely require additional signage.
“We are against the expense and the annoyance” of more signs, the petition said.
The rationale for the law was to both improve road cleanliness and keep storm sewer catch basins clear, thus reducing street flooding during heavy rains, officials said.
Menna focused on another Wednesday, when he spoke about “stewardship” of the Navesink River and other waterways into which the sewer system drains.
“It was not any ulterior scheme to make it difficult for people, or a revenue generator or anything else I read on the blogs,” he said. “It was a very altruistic policy.”
The benefits would have been “genuine and real,” Menna said.
But the borough is “challenged” by having a number of narrow streets, where many residents must park their vehicles because they lack driveways, he said.
“So we have to come up with a solution that protects the environment and at the same time treats our residents fairly,” he said.
Borough officials would convene to“bring back a reasonable proposal at a future date,” he said.
The council vote to kill the bill was unanimous.
