Sunbury Village Council has taken a step toward restricting parking on Fairland Drive.
During last week’s council meeting, council members approved a motion that allows Village Solicitor David Brehm to draft legislation that would restrict parking on Fairland.
Council member Dave Miller cited nearby residents’ complaints about cars parked on both sides of Fairland between South Miller Drive and Woodchuck Drive during youth sports league practice sessions on the village-owned, all-purpose athletic fields adjacent to General Rosecrans Elementary School.
Miller said the parking situation restricts traffic flow, and creates hazardous conditions for youth using the practice fields.
Mayor Tommy Hatfield said that youth league parents are not using paved parking areas at the elementary school, available after school hours.
“People parking on the left and right side of that street makes it pretty much one way,” Hatfield said. “Monday night we’ll have a developer in here talking about 148 apartments in that empty lot across the street from Rosecrans, so it’s not going to get any better.”
Hatfield said that when four teams are practicing — with 25 children per team — the number of cars parked on Fairland becomes a hazard.
“As a council, we could restrict parking on one side or both sides,” Hatfield said. “There’s enough parking in the school itself; there would be no need for parking on the street.”
Because Fairland Drive narrows between Woodchuck and the entrance to Big Walnut Middle School, council members also agreed to limit parking from Woodchuck Drive to the middle school entrance to one side of the street.
Brehm will bring legislation to the Sept. 1 council meeting that would ban on-street parking on Fairland Drive from South Miller Drive to Woodchuck Drive, and restrict on-street parking on Fairland to the north side of the street only from Woodchuck to the middle school entrance.
The legislation will contain emergency language. With a suspension of the rules, approval of emergency language, and approval of the ordinance, the parking restrictions would become effective immediately.
“We’re trying to make it as safe as we can,” Hatfield said.
