Vehicles allowed to park over sidewalks

Perry Village Council approved the measure for limited time frames

For the second time in less than a year, Perry Village Council has amended a section of an ordinance that regulates where vehicles can be parked.

Council, during its March 9 meeting, approved a measure that will allow vehicles to park on sidewalks during specific time frames.

The amendment to the ordinance makes it legal to park on sidewalks in Perry Village from midnight to 6 a.m. year round, and during snow emergencies. Within those periods, vehicles can be parked on sections of sidewalk located between a driveway and driveway apron that borders a street.

Before council authorized the change, this type of sidewalk parking for vehicles was prohibited altogether. Council looked into revising that ban after seeing a predicament resulting from a decision made in September to prohibit parking on village streets from midnight to 8 a.m. year round.

Previously, Perry Village had forbidden overnight parking on the community’s streets from midnight to 7 a.m. during the months of December, January, February and March. However, that regulation was changed at a Sept. 8 meeting when council decided to extend the overnight parking to a year-round basis and adjust the times for the ban to midnight to 8 a.m.

Council President Jean Schonauer recommended extending the finishing time to 8 a.m. to reduce obstructions for school buses as they travel through narrow village streets in the morning.

After the year-round, overnight parking ban went into effect, Perry Village residents needed to park only in their driveways between midnight and 8 a.m. However, council eventually conceded that the mandate would mean some residents who have more than two cars and shorter driveways might have to end up blocking sidewalks — and violating one law to comply with another.

The legislation to potentially revise the sidewalk parking prohibition was slated for a third and final reading at the March 9 meeting.

Councilman Rick Walker suggested allowing vehicles to park over sidewalks from midnight to 8 a.m., to coincide with the times they can’t be parked along village streets.

At a previous meeting, Walker said he disagreed with a proposal to start allowing sidewalk parking at 10 p.m. He noted that some village residents take walks between 10 p.m. and midnight and should have unobstructed sidewalks.

But Councilman Mike Glover questioned Walker about allowing sidewalk parking until 8 a.m. each day.

“People walk well before 8 a.m., so under that same argument, don’t you think 8 o’clock would be too late?” he said.

After several other Perry Village government leaders at the meeting chimed in with suggested time frames of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or midnight to 7, Village Councilman Phil Cassella asked Police Chief Troy Hager for his input.

Hager said he recommended that sidewalk parking be allowed between midnight and 6 a.m. year round and during snow emergencies.

“If we’re telling people to (not park on streets) during snow emergencies, then we should allow them to park (in driveways) and block the sidewalk,” Hager said. “Because we’re not plowing those sidewalks.”

Hager’s proposal also satisfied the desire of some council members to make sure cars are not blocking sidewalks by the time children begin walking to school or their bus stops.

Walker, Cassella and fellow members Elias Coss and Becky Shimko all voted to approve the newly allowed times for sidewalk parking. Councilman Mike Glover cast the lone “no” vote.

“If we were going to address the sidewalk blocking exception, then I thought we needed to extend the hours to greater than the allowance times that we passed,” Glover later explained his vote. “You have to remove your car from the street by midnight, per the parking ban, but cannot block the sidewalk before midnight. That means you have to be out exactly at midnight and at 6 a.m. to move your car, or you’ll be in noncompliance with one of the two ordinances.”

Back in September, Glover also voted against banning overnight parking along village streets on a year-round basis. He said the village only had received three complaints about its overnight parking regulations, which didn’t justify the need to change those rules.

NEWS-HERALD FILE PHOTO A parked vehicle at a home on Honeysuckle Lane in Perry Village blocks a sidewalk in June of 2021. Perry Village Council, at its March 9meeting, decided to allow parking over sidewalks in the community from midnight to 6a.m. year round and during snow emergencies. Previously, the village had prohibited vehicles from blocking sidewalks at any time.