Walnut City Council to Consider Parking Changes

The Walnut City Council could be making some changes to parking restrictions around Walnut High and Collegewood Elementary School.

The council Wednesday night will consider two separate parking-related ordinances.  One would alter the hours of restricted parking weekdays on streets near Collegewood.  The other would prohibit parking on Carbonia Avenue between Deloraine and Divonne drives in the neighborhood near the high school.

On Oct. 14, 2009, the council adopted an urgency ordinance to restrict parking between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. on various streets in the neighborhood around Collegewood.  At the time, the council had some concerns about the effect of the parking restrictions on the parents’ ability to pick up their children afterschool, according to the staff report. 

As a result, the council granted an exception to the parking restrictions between 2:45 and 3:45 p.m. on the first 200 feet of Lassiter Drive west of Atterbury Drive, the first 200 feet of Cranmer Drive east of Atterbury Drive, and the first 200 feet of Atterbury south of the intersection of Lassiter and Cranmer.

The Collegewood principal and parents recently requested that the city extend that exception to the parking restrictions to the hour between 7:45 and 8:45 a.m. on weekdays for school drop off.

“This would provide parents the ability to park during the morning drop-off period in order to walk their kids to school, to visit the school office, and provide an area for volunteers to park since the school parking lot is often overflowing,” City Engineer David Gilbertson wrote in the staff report.

Of the 11 residents that would be affected by the change in parking restrictions, 10 signed a petition in support of it.

Also under consideration is an ordinance to amend the code to prohibit parking on Carbonia Avenue between Deloraine and Divonne drives.

In July, the council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance that restricts parking to one hour between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on school days along four streets. Complaints from residents about littering and students interfering with parking for homeowners, street cleaning, and trash pick up prompted the city's Traffic Safety Committee to recommend the ordinance.

More than 50 percent of the 234 residents on the 14 streets surveyed favored the restrictions.

The streets included in the approved ordinance were Claro Drive from Julliard Drive to Barnard Avenue, Carbonia Avenue from Deloraine Drive to Evant Drive, Deloraine Drive west of Carbonia Avenue, and Divonne Drive west of Carbonia Avenue.

In July, Gilbertson said that overcrowding in the school’s lots did not prompt the parking restrictions.

The lot typically is around 80 percent full, but some students prefer to park on the street, he said. The gates of the lots are closed at certain times, so students sometimes park on the street if they come late or want to leave early, he said.

After the Sheriff’s Department started enforcing the parking restrictions, some residents who live on the section of Carbonia not included in the original ordinance requested that their area be added, according to the staff report.

The results of an initial survey in June found that 39 percent of residents along the left out section of Carbonia responded in favor of the restrictions, so it was not included in the original ordinance, Gilbertson said in the staff report.  Residents recently submitted a petition with 13 of 18 residents, or 72 percent, showing support for the change.

The Walnut City Council meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.