TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Response to Petition Regarding Front Yard Parking
DATE: September 27, 2004
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this memorandum is to report work done in response to a petition presented to the Council on June 14, 2004, by two citizens who reside on Coolidge Street. The petition requested enforcement of the Land Use Management Ordinance front yard parking regulations along the entire length of Old Pittsboro Road and Coolidge Street. Town staff recommended that in response to the petition, systematic enforcement of the Land Use Management Ordinance Front Yard Parking regulations be implemented by the Inspections Department.
BACKGROUND
The Town’s Development Ordinance applied front yard parking regulations to properties located in the Historic District only. Front yard parking regulations became applicable to the entire Town in January 2003, when the Land Use Management Ordinance was adopted. The Land Use Management Ordinance includes an additional new article, Section 7.6, which mandates that any nonconforming parking area in a front yard shall either be eliminated or made to conform to current regulations within six months after the date of notice.
DISCUSSION
On June 14, 2004, the Town Council received a petition from two residents of Coolidge Street requesting that the front yard parking regulations be enforced along the entire length of both Old Pittsboro Road and Coolidge Street (please see Attachment 1).
During the first site visit in the area, Code Enforcement officers found that a number of the properties appeared not to be in compliance with the ordinance regulation that no more than forty (40%) percent of the front yard can be designated for parking vehicles. The Inspections Department implemented systematic enforcement of the front yard parking regulations to bring the properties along the two roads into compliance.
Every owner of property adjacent to Old Pittsboro Road and Coolidge Street was notified of front yard parking regulations, given six months to comply with the ordinance for nonconforming parking area, and asked to request an inspection for compliance.
Initial notices were mailed on July 27, 2004. The six-month deadline to comply with the Land Use Management Ordinance front yard parking regulations expires the week of February 1, 2005. There were a total of forty nine (49) parcels identified along Old Pittsboro Road and Coolidge Street. As of September 1, 2004, twenty (20) of the property owners have requested final inspections and 18 have been found in compliance with the relevant provisions of the Land Use Management Ordinance. The Inspections Department will report on this project again in February 2005.
ATTACHMENT
ATTACHMENT 1
AGENDA #3a(3)
June 10, 2004
Mayor and Town Council
Town of Chapel Hill
306 North Columbia Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Dear Mayor Foy and Members of the Town Council,
Please bring the residences along the entire length of Old Pittsboro Road and Coolidge Street into compliance with the front yard parking restrictions of the Land Use Management Ordinance.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Joe Capowski Martin Feinstein
404 Coolidge Street 400 Coolidge Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27516 Chapel Hill, NC 27516
929-1670 933-3089
[email protected] [email protected]