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Photo by Ingrid Schnader
By restriping the road, removing the middle turn lane and changing the parallel parking spaces to angled spaces, Jennifer Andress said approximately 15 new parking spaces could be added to 29th Avenue South.
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Photo by Ingrid Schnader
The Homewood City Council voted Feb. 24 to improve lighting in the SOHO parking garage. Five new lights have already been installed on the west side of the garage.
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Photo by Ingrid Schnader
The Homewood City Council voted Feb. 24 to add Reece Street, Crescent Avenue and Linden Avenue to the parking enforcement ordinance. These cars, parked on Crescent Avenue, are now only allowed to remail parked there for three consecutive hours.
The Homewood City Council voted at the Feb. 24 meeting to improve lighting in the SoHo parking deck and to add three downtown streets to the three-hour parking enforcement ordinance.
It also discussed plans to add 15 parking spaces to 29th Avenue South near 19th Place South.
“A few years ago, when we did the Heart of Homewood master plan … one of the first things they told us was there was this very underutilized parking garage,” said Councilwoman Jennifer Andress. “At all times, it’s only ever 40% full.”
The feedback the city received, Andress said, was that people didn’t want to park in the garage because of poor lighting and safety concerns.
“But we’ve never had an incident in that garage, ever,” Andress said.
To alleviate these concerns, the city entered an agreement with Stone & Sons Electrical Contractors, Inc. to remove all existing light fixtures in the garage and replace them with 160 LED lights. The estimated cost is $48,850.
Five of these lights have already been installed on the west side of the garage.
“It is very much needed,” said Council President Peter Wright. “That garage has been too dark for too long. I’m excited to get some light in there.”
There are also future plans to paint the garage white to make it brighter, but the city will first focus on the new LED fixtures and see how that affects the lighting, Andress said.
The council also approved a resolution to add Reece Street, Crescent Avenue and Linden Avenue to the downtown three-hour parking enforcement ordinance. Andress said some businesses on these streets complained that cars would park in front of their business and remain parked all day.
“Particularly with the salons, they would show up at 10 o’clock or later, and the streets would already be full of cars,” Andress said. “And they would stay there all day. The customers were constantly telling them they didn’t have anywhere to park.”
The parking enforcement ordinance states that a car cannot be parked in these spaces for longer than three consecutive hours on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Chris Presley owns Fringe Hair Studio on Linden Avenue, and he said he hopes adding these streets to the parking ordinance improves his salon’s parking.
“Because if there’s nowhere for people to park, they’re going to want to go somewhere else,” he said. “It’s definitely been a problem.”
On 29th Avenue South, the council is moving forward with plans to re-stripe the road and improve parking in front of businesses such as Urban Cookhouse, Real and Rosemary and Big Bad Breakfast.
The plan is to eliminate the middle turn lane and transform the parallel parking spaces into angled parking spaces. This would add approximately 15 new spaces.
At the meeting, the council decided to send this request to the finance committee. Andress said she will ask for up to $5,000 to do the engineering and sketching.
“We want folks to come downtown,” Andress said. “We want everyone to know we’re open for business. We’ve got parking for you. Come on down.”