Municipal Services Committee Holds Overnight Parking Resolution Until 04/08/2024 Meeting – Hopes To Find Way To Meet DNR Stormwater Regulations While Also Allowing Overnight On-Street Parking

The Municipal Services Committee met 03/11/2024. One of the items they took up for discussion was Resolution 11-R-23 which calls for allowing overnight on-street parking with a monthly permit. This resolution was authored by Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) and was initially introduced back in October of 2023.

It was held a couple times to allow staff time to investigate issues related to implementing it, and staff eventually recommended against approving it, citing a number of logistical issues such as the impact on street sweeping and snow plowing operations. An item of particular concern was how allowing overnight parking would impact Appleton’s ability to qualify for a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit from the DNR. The permit “requires continuous positive progress toward meeting its pollutant reduction standards,” and a reduction in the effectiveness and efficiency of the city’s street sweeper program would highly impact the ability of the city to maintain that permit.

The committee members seemed to recognize the regulatory limitations placed on the city by the need to maintain its MS4 permit, but various alderpersons also seemed to acknowledge the need for more parking options in older neighborhoods where driveways did not necessarily provide the space needed for a modern family to park the number of cars they owned.

The committee ended up voting 3-0 to hold the resolution for a month until the Municipal Services Committee meeting on 04/08/2024, in order to give staff time to investigate if there were ways to maintain the city’s street sweeping effectiveness while also providing some over-night on-street parking option.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:

Alderperson Siebers started off the conversation by saying that older districts had gotten to the point where they had more cars that parking spaces. Some residents were frustrated by the number of cars parking overnight in contravention of rules, and some residents were frustrated that they did not have enough space to park their cars. He noted that there was inconsistency in enforcement. He hoped to mediate this situation with this resolution.

There was discussion about the need for the city to maintain its MS4 permit with the DNR. Per Director of Public Works Danielle Block, “Current street sweeping practices provide a tremendous amount of credit into our total suspended solids removal and total phosphorus annually. So that’s a major role in removing sediment and is very important to obtaining that permit.”

There did not seem to be a lot of wiggle room in making changes to on-street parking while also maintaining the efficiency and effectiveness of Appleton’s street sweeping program. There was, however, a possibility that the city might be able to allow overnight on-street parking on alternating sides of the street if they were able to coordinate things enough with the street sweeping program.

There was a general recognition that there was spotty enforcement of the city’s existing ordinance forbidding on-street parking between the hours of 2AM and 5AM except in situation when an owner called the car in to the Police station. There was also recognition that there was not enough man-power to enforce the existing rules.

A couple alderpersons expressed the belief that there did need to be more parking options for residents given the reliance people had on cars.

Alderperson Siebers talked about the large amount of over-night parking he saw happening on the streets of District 1.

Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) said, “It used to be if you were a two-person household with a couple of teenagers, you still only had two cars. Now if you’re a two-person household and you’ve got two teenagers, you got four cars to manage. And it can be incredibly challenging if you’ve got a small driveway that can only hold two vehicles. So, we struggle with that. I’ve certainly parked in the street without calling in because it just happens.” He went on to say, “I think there’s some middle ground here, and we got to deal with it where. you know, we’d like to move to a more pedestrian society but that’s not where we are right now. There’s a lot of vehicles, and just about every person in this community has a vehicle. And a lot of us are challenged to park if we’re living in the old portions of Appleton.”

The committee ended up voting to hold the resolution for 4 more weeks to provide staff more time to look into the logistics of moving to a system where cars could be parked overnight on alternating sides of the street each night. Alderperson Siebers, the author of the resolution, was willing to have it held one more time, but he was also anxious to have it voted on because it had already been held multiple times since it was introduced in October.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1182899&GUID=F6D2D877-36A4-4322-8325-50A772CAEA4E