Rocky Mount neighborhood could lose on-street parking
The Town of Rocky Mount is thinking about getting rid of on-street parking in one neighborhood.
The vehicles along Old Fort Road are becoming a hot topic, with the town saying it's narrowing the street.
“One of the things that you’re dealing with when you have new developments is that you come up with unexpected issues and problems and one of the things that has come up is that there is a significant amount of on-street parking in this development,” Assistant Town Manager Matt Hankins said.
Old Fort Road gets cluttered with cars and other vehicles at different times of day.
“We’ve had issues getting garbage trucks through, you know, FedEx and UPS delivery trucks have a difficult time getting through,” Hankins said.
With more houses being built behind this development, the town is worried the parking problem is only going to get worse.
“So we want to be out in front in dealing with some of those issues,” Hankins said.
However, neighbors like Stephanie Liddle don’t think their cars are the problem.
“They’re the issue in my opinion, we haven’t had any complaints from people that our car parks in the road,” Liddle said.
She’s talking about these construction vehicles at the end of the road.
The machinery that blocks the cul-de-sac makes it difficult for many vehicles, like Liddle’s son’s school bus, to navigate the neighborhood.
“They started construction up there again and the buses weren’t able to turn around. When the cul-de-sac is empty they can turn around no problem,” she said.
Other neighbors said banning on-street parking is more of a headache than a solution.
“It’s just going to make it very hard for us to do things here with other people and other vehicles that are coming by,” Scott Waterhouse said.
The town’s Planning Commission has recommended to ban all on-street parking along Old Fort Road, but Rocky Mount’s Town Council will ultimately be the ones to make the decision.
The issue is up for discussion Monday evening at its meeting at 7 p.m.
