Municipal Services Committee Votes 4-1 Against Overnight On-Street Parking Resolution

The Municipal Services Committee met 05/06/2024. The agenda item that took up the most amount of time was the resolution regarding on-street overnight parking, and the committee ended up voting 4-1 to deny it.

Alderperson William Siebers made a motion to amend the resolution to allow a one-year trial program of on-street overnight parking. This would permit overnight parking on alternating sides of the street, excluding areas that only allowed parking on one side of the street and areas that did not allow parking at any time. Overnight parking would remain prohibited during the winter months. The amendment also called for updating signage at the outskirts of the city, providing sufficient staffing for enforcement within the parking utility, and altering the street sweeping schedule to accommodate overnight parking while also remaining compliant with the DNR’s requirements for stormwater quality.

The amended ended up being voted down by a vote of 3-2 with Alderpersons William Siebers (District 1) and Vered Meltzer (District 2) voting in favor of it, and Alderpersons Brad Firkus (District 3), Denise Fenton (District 6), and Chad Doran (District 15) voting against it.

The committee then went on to recommended by unamended resolution for denial by a vote of 4-1 with Alderperson Siebers casting the dissenting vote.

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

Alderperson Siebers started out the discussion by introducing an amendment that he and Alderperson Fenton had worked on which read thusly:

The city of Appleton will initiate a trial program, allowing alternate side street parking on all streets within the city limits except on streets where parking is only allowable on one side, areas with more restricted parking limitations, and those areas where parking is not permitted at any time. Overnight street parking will remain prohibited during the winter months to facilitate snow removal. Snow emergency parking restrictions will remain applicable.

Be it further resolved that the city of Appleton Department of Public Works and the parking utility will undertake the required measures to implement the trial, including providing signage, sufficient enforcement staffing within the parking utility, and altering street sweeping schedules to accommodate overnight parking while still remaining compliant with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources requirements for stormwater quality.

And finally, be it further resolved that the city of Appleton Department of Public Works provide an evaluation of the program to the municipal services committee and the Common Council one year after the implementation of the trial.”

The idea of conducting a one-year city-wide trial of these parking changes met with pushback. Alderperson Doran said, “I’m not even sure where the staff would begin to communicate something on a citywide basis like that as for a temporary sort of trial.”

Alderperson Firkus indicated that he would have been inclined to vote for the proposed changes had they simply been permanent, however, “I was not comfortable with the idea of saying ‘Maybe we will; maybe we won’t; let’s just kind of try this out.’”

Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) pointed out, “When we redid College Avenue, everybody laughed when we said ‘It’s a trial period,’ because they know it’s a joke.”

There would be costs associated with conducting a trial including an estimated $3,500 needed to change the signs on the outskirts of city explaining the parking rules as well as potentially $30,000 for an additional traffic enforcement vehicle. They would also need to pay for a contract with a towing at an unknown cost.

The purchase of an additional enforcement vehicle, in particular, seemed important to the effectiveness of the trial. Director of Public Works Danielle Block initially told the committee, “If we’re not given the funding to purchase another vehicle, we would not purchase another vehicle and we would just do enforcement with the existing vehicle covering less area;” however, when Alderperson Doran asked if traffic enforcement conducted with only one vehicle would provide a good gauge for the trial period, she told the committee, “No.”

Alderperson Seibers seemed frustrated by the way this resolution had spiraled away from what he had originally envisioned, stating:

When I submitted this resolution, I did not expect us to go this far. My understanding was we had a problem in the central districts in terms of on street parking and a lack of consistency in regards to parking. I was not looking at, you know, hiring extra people, getting extra vehicles. I just wanted to find a solution, get some organization in regards to, you know, if we did allow street parking, you know, trying alternate side parking. […]

And I don’t want to get off the subject, but we all know that our police department is understaffed. It has other things to do than to enforce, you know, parking whatever. But I never ever expected us to go this far. I would not in favor—be in favor of you by adding personnel, adding another vehicle to enforce, you know, the parking restrictions. I think we have, we have to set priorities, and my priorities would be focused on more what I think very important issues such as police—adding police.”

The committee ended up voting down the amendment by a vote of 3-2.

When it came time to vote on the original unamended resolution, Alderperson Meltzer, who had voted for the amendment, said, “Without the amendment, I’m not really sure what voting in favor of this would accomplish. So, I am not going to vote in favor of this without the amendment.”

Alderperson Hartzheim raised the possibility of forming a parking advisory committee similar to the bicycle advisory committee.

Alderperson Firkus mentioned that he had recently read about something called a “parking benefit district’ and wondered if that might provide Appleton a solution.

Alderperson Fenton who had helped craft the amendment that she ultimately voted against said, “I’m not giving this up. We will be back with something related to overnight parking, because my district—I am, I get equal amounts, ‘You’re not enforcing people parking on the street,’ and ‘I’m in a neigh—I’m in a place where I don’t have enough place to park,’ so we have to do something. This will come back, and as everybody else said, I can’t support the resolution without the amendment, but I am committing to doing something about the overnight parking, and we’re going to come back.”

The committee ended up voting 4-1 to recommend the resolution for denial.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1195284&GUID=9DE6D2DB-CDCC-463F-941F-56626D9A070F