The ad hoc committee created to review the City of Dickson’s parking regulations will meet at 6:00 pm Monday, Feb. 13, in the Council Chambers of Dickson City Hall, 600 East Walnut St. The meeting is open to the public.
Mayor Don L. Weiss Jr. appointed the special committee at the Jan. 9 City Council meeting after the council unanimously rejected on second reading an ordinance adopting restrictions for on-street parking. The ordinance had unanimously passed on first reading in May but was subsequently deferred three times after facing opposition from residents.
In making the motion to reject the ordinance, Councilperson Kyle Sanders (2nd Ward) requested the mayor appoint a special committee to review the city’s current regulations and consider any recommendations for changes.
Mayor Weiss appointed councilpersons Betty Lou Alsobrooks (1st Ward), Sanders, Stacey Levine (3rd Ward) and Dwight Haynes (4th Ward) to the special committee and asked Haynes to chair it. No timeline was established for when the committee is expected to make a recommendation to the full council.
At its May 2, 2022, meeting, the city council approved on first reading Ordinance #1522 to adopt new regulations regarding on-street parking throughout the city. The change was initiated after the council previously rejected a request from residents to install speed humps on Poplar Street.
That rejection, along with rulings by Dickson Municipal Court Judge Stan Reynolds that the city’s parking regulations were not clear enough, prompted Police Chief Jeff Lewis, Fire Chief Richard Greer and Public Works Director David Travis to draft recommended changes.
In a presentation to the council, Travis showed pictures of several areas around the city where vehicles parking on the streets partially block the lane of travel while other vehicles were parking on sidewalks, which is already prohibited by a city ordinance.
Poplar Street became the example of where on-street parking reduced the lane of travel to one lane. Fire Chief Greer said the department’s larger trucks could barely pass between parked vehicles on Poplar Street and in the event of a fire the department would be hindered in making an aerial attack because the ladder truck would not be able to set up with the stabilization arms extended.
Travis said the city’s sanitation trucks regularly experience problems picking up residents’ trash because of vehicles parked on the street and the leaf and brush crews also are hampered by parked vehicles.
The ordinance originally approved by the council in May would have prohibited on-street parking anywhere that would force traffic to cross the center of the street into the opposite lane to safely get around the parked vehicle. It also limited parking on the side of the street to the direction of traffic in that lane.
The ordinance faced opposition primarily from residents of Poplar Street, several of whom said they have no other option other than parking on the street. Mayor Weiss and the council deferred second reading on the ordinance three times before it was finally voted down at the January meeting and the special committee appointed.
