Chesley Homeowners Association, Inc.
P. O. Box 16941
Chapel Hill, NC 27516-6941
October 11, 2007
Mayor and Town Council
Town of Chapel Hill
405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Re: Revised Petition for Parking Restrictions on Streets in the Chesley Subdivision
Dear Mr. Mayor and Members of the Town Council:
Following the September 24, 2007 Town Council Meeting at which several Council members indicated that it might help in enforcing parking restrictions in Chesley if our restrictions conformed to those of other subdivisions or areas where restrictions are already in place, we have taken the following actions. We again surveyed the Chesley residents for their opinions about the various options available. Then we had a meeting of the Chesley Board of Directors (to which all Chesley residents were invited by letter and follow-up E-mails) with three members of the town staff (Kumar Nappalli, Brenda Joes, and Officer Drew Cabe) to discuss issues of parking restrictions and ways of bringing our neighborhood into agreement with others.
It is not a simple matter to bring all areas surrounding ECHHS into uniformity. There are parking restrictions already in Chandlers Green, Silver Creek II and Cedar Falls Park, but the rules differ.
AREA PARKING LIMIT DAYS TIMES
Cedar Falls Park 3 hours Mon-Fri 8:30 AM –3:30 PM
On school days
Chandlers Green No on-street parking Mon-Fri 9 AM- 4 PM
Silver Creek II 2 hours Mon-Fri 7 AM – 4 PM
______________________________________________________________________________
I therefore designed a survey (copy attached) presenting all three of these options, along with our original 3-hour limit, 8-4, M-F, and sent it to all Chesley homeowners with a letter of explanation for why we were conducting another survey. 77% responded. Option #3 (the Cedar Falls Park option) was the most popular choice with 79% of the respondents finding it acceptable.
We are strongly in favor of a 3-hour as opposed to a 2-hour time limit in order to accommodate the needs of Chesley guests and service people who must park on the street. The option of “No on-street parking” such as exists in Chandlers Green was rejected by 66% of respondents. Even if residents were able to get parking permits to override such a restriction, we felt it would burdensome for them to renew them on a yearly basis and have to use these permits on a regular, or perhaps even daily basis.
Therefore, we are revising our petition to request the same time limits, hours, and days as exist currently in Cedar Falls Park. This seems a reasonable step towards conformity, since this is the area closest to our subdivision and one that will rely on the same method of enforcement. The ECHHS Student Resource Officer and member of the CHPD, Officer Rex Gibson, provides parking rule enforcement for Cedar Falls Park. He has told us that he will also respond to calls from Chesley residents reporting illegally-parked student cars. We understand that neither he nor other officers of the CHPD will patrol our neighborhood looking for parking infractions. Rather the Chesley residents will take on the monitoring task. It should only take a few cases of students being ticketed for word to spread at ECHHS, and thereafter the enforcement needs should be minimal as has been the case in Silver Creek II.
Another result that emerged from our second survey of the Chesley homeowners was a growing consensus among the residents along Chesley Lane that they did NOT have a problem with student parkers and that many of them routinely had guests who needed to park for longer than 3 hours. Thus we are removing Chesley Lane from the list of streets on which we are requesting parking restrictions.
The final form of our petition thus becomes:
A 3-hour limit, from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM, on School Days.
Applying to both sides of the following streets:
Sierra Drive – entire length from cul-de-sac to intersection with Chesley Lane,
Muir Drive – from Weaver Dairy Road entrance to Tamalpais Point,
Tamalpais Point – all, and Overlook Point – all.
We appreciate the efforts of Kumar Neppalli and other Town staff members in assisting us with this process and in answering many questions raised by the homeowners. We hope this revised petition satisfies the concerns raised by the Town Council.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Sampsell, President.
Board of Directors
Chesley Homeowners Association, Inc.
109 Sierra Drive, 919-967-6952
Please complete this form and return to Sampsell Mailbox, 109 Sierra Drive
OR mail it, along with your dues check, in the envelope provided here.
I must receive these forms by October 8, if they are to be helpful. Thank you.
The current parking restrictions, whose objective is mainly to prevent High School students from parking in that area, are shown below. Our request to the Town Council was for limits that are nearly the same as the Park’s.
|
AREA |
PARKING LIMIT |
DAYS |
TIMES |
|
Cedar Falls Park |
3 hours |
Mon-Fri On school days |
8:30 AM – 3:30 PM |
|
Silver Creek II |
2 hours |
Mon-Fri |
7 AM – 4 PM |
|
Chandlers Green |
No on-street parking* |
Mon-Fri |
9 AM- 4 PM |
|
* Residents, at least, do have a type of parking permit; I am exploring details of this. |
|||
Please rate your opinion about each of the following options. Restrictions would only apply on streets already indicated in the petition.
|
|
I/We would find this option to be |
||
|
|
Acceptable for Chesley |
Unacceptable |
|
|
1. No on-street parking, 8-4, M-F |
|
________ |
_________ |
|
2. 2-hour limit, 8-4, M-F |
|
________ |
_________ |
|
3. 3-hour limit, 8:30-3:30, School Days |
|
________ |
_________ |
|
4. 3-hour limit, 8-4, M-F |
|
________ |
_________ |
|
5. No restrictions on school days. Try to deal with student parkers in some other way. |
________ |
_________ |
|
Which of theses five options would be your first choice? _____________
Comments:
Name____________________________ Address ______________________________