Politics & Government

Residential Parking Zone on Chopping Block

The Fredericksburg City Council will take up a measure which would relax parking regulations on a neighborhood street near UMW, but the proposal faces stiff opposition from the local city councilor.

Update - 6:15 p.m. -At the request of officials from the University of Mary Washington, the city manager has removed this item from tonight's agenda to seek more input from neighborhood residents. 

"I’d be shocked if it gets brought before [council] anytime soon," said Ward 3 Councilor Fred Howe in an email to residents opposed to the plan. "My guess is they may wait it out and slide it in later under the radar as it seems they did this time around."

The original article is below.

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Tonight, when the City Council takes up a proposal to relax parking regulations on a side street near the University of Mary Washington, expect the measure to receive vigorous opposition from Councilor Fred Howe. 

Find out what's happening in Fredericksburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The measure would remove residential parking zones on north side of the 1200 block of Thornton Street. Howe, whose Ward 3 district includes the street in question, said in an interview yesterday that he had marshalled enough votes to defeat the measure during tonights regular session of the City Council. He is loathe to open up more neighborhood streets to parking which he said would inevitably be used for student parking. 

"UMW needs to solve their parking problem and not force it down the throats of the residents who are already dealing with their parking problem," said Howe. 

A memo distributed to City Council from Doug Fawcett, Fredericksburg's director of public works, says that UMW has petitioned the city to eliminate the residential parking zones on the northern side of Thornton Street. Fawcett also recommends the City Council approve the measure. 

UMW owns all but one piece of property on that side of the road. The lone non-campus owned property being a small brick duplex. The city sent a notice to the owner of the building regarding the proposal to eliminate the residential parking zone. Fawcett's memo notes that the Police Department has not issued a parking permit to any residents at that address. 

Retiree and Thornton Street resident Anne Swift says that she's opposed to changing the residential parking zones. She says she organized in the original effort to have the street designated as a residential parking zone back in the 1990s. Though she no longer drives, she says that if she wants to host bridge games, the residential parking makes it easy to host guests.

"I don't think it's completely fair to the homeowners," says Swift. "The students were taking up all of the street parking...I'm very concerned about that happening again."


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