Kent City Council on March 19 approved an ordinance prohibiting more than three vehicles registered to a given address being parked in the right of way at any given time.
Council members and Police Chief Nicholas Shearer on March 5 had discussed the ordinance, which they said stems from the city’s concerns about cars lining a part of West Elm Street for over a year.
The ordinance notes that many city streets are older and narrow, having been constructed generations ago when households had only one or two vehicles.
Kent’s newest law recognizes that today’s residents park on city streets because many households now have more vehicles. Even so, limiting the number of vehicles registered to a given address to three is necessary “in order for the right of way to be used fairly,” the ordinance states.
The new parking ordinance affects vehicles parked in low-, medium- and high-density residential zoning districts. The section of West Elm Street that triggered the city’s concern is in a high-density residential district.
The city defines “right-of-way” as the roadway, shoulders or berm, and ditch and slopes the state “or local authority” control. To account for multi-unit residences, “address” refers to the mailing address to which the vehicle is registered.
Earlier this month, Shearer told council that some homes on West Elm Street either don’t have driveways at all or only have very short ones. The city has looked the other way while residents parked their vehicles in the city’s right-of-way and even created roadside gravel parking areas, he said.
Parking on front lawns and tree lawns is illegal in Kent, but City Manager Dave Ruller said earlier this month that the law hadn’t been enforced until one West Elm Street address triggered complaints from nearby residents. That single house had as many as nine personal vehicles on the street, he said.
The vehicles’ owners would move some of the vehicles when police arrived to issue citations, but the city soon learned that its conventional ticketing protocol proved ineffective, he said.
“The laws aren’t unbeatable,” Ruller said. “If you work hard enough, you can try to get around the law, so we finally got to the point where we were like, ‘You got to have an upper limit.’”
Shearer told council the new law is meant to establish a single standard that will apply to all properties, not to target a specific West Elm Street property.
Ward 3 Council Member Robin Turner, whose ward includes West Elm Street, said the area of West Elm and Pine Street resembles a “used car lot,” with some of the cars being junk. He and Kent police told The Portager that a second property at West Elm and Franklin Avenue also has excessive vehicles.
“There’s no real rational reason for nine cars at a property, which has a husband and wife and two kids, or another one which basically has one person at the property,’ Turner told council members on March 5.
On March 19, Turner said the number of vehicles spilling off the properties and onto the street condenses driving lanes and makes it difficult, if not dangerous, for motorists to negotiate the nearby intersections. City crews also have to work around the vehicles during severe snow events, he said.
“How many cars does one property owner need to have?” Turner asked his colleagues. “We’re not doing a parking lot here. It diminishes the look of the neighborhood, the effectiveness of the neighborhood. I think it diminishes the quality of life for the residents. That’s why they requested us addressing it.”
Casting the sole vote against the measure, Ward 6 Council Member Jeff Clapper said city laws already prohibit street and right-of-way parking for more than 24 consecutive hours, and the new legislation could just create a new problem.
The targeted residents could simply remove their vehicles and then report their neighbors for parking on the street, tree lawn or other right-of-way areas, Clapper said.
Especially since West Elm is slated for improvements that will include curbs, the problem may soon take care of itself, Clapper said.
(The city intends to reconstruct Elm Street starting in 2027. Plans include paving, new sidewalks, concrete curbs and gutters, and catch basins and storm sewers to improve drainage along the roadway. Shearer also stated that the addition of curbs should curtail the parking infractions.)
What does ‘moved’ mean?
Earlier this month Shearer told council members that all but one of the cars have current registration and all are moved regularly, though the definition of “moved” changed in recent years.
He said police had to abandon their longtime practice of chalking tires because “somehow, some way, a district court of appeals has declared that to be an unreasonable search or seizure amendment violation because we’re touching their property,” Shearer said.
(That ruling was issued in 2022 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.)
Instead, police now take a picture of where the valve stem on a vehicle’s tire is positioned.
“If they (police) return to come check that vehicle within 24 hours and the valve stem is in a different location, we can no longer say that that vehicle didn’t leave. We can’t do it,” he said. “That’s the only way to track that.”
“If a vehicle moves forward even a foot, the valve stem would be in a different position and police can’t issue a citation for street storage,” Shearer said.
Violating Kent’s newest law will be classified as a minor misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $150.
Other council actions
Also on March 19, council accepted:
- A $2,000 community event sponsorship award from NOPEC. The city intends to use the funds for the Kent Area Chamber of Commerce’s December Festival of Lights.
- A $50,733 NOPEC Energized Community Grant Award. The city intends to use the funds to hire a consultant to work with the city’s Community Development Department on locating, financing and administering a solar array in Kent.
Council also approved:
- $50,000 to repair and resurface Hudson Road from McKinney Boulevard to Johnson Road. The project is a joint effort with Franklin Township.
- $10,000 for a joint study agreement with Kent’s Parks & Recreation Department, its Service Department and the Davey Tree Expert Co. to combine Kent’s arboretum and the new Davey Tree Arboretum.
The Davey Tree Arboretum, which will be open to the public, is on its North Mantua Street SEED campus, adjacent to the city’s John Davey Arboretum. Part of the planned North Mantua project involves constructing a walkway that will connect both properties, but the city doesn’t want the walkway to be adjacent to North Mantua Street.
Alternative routes are only possible if the two arboretums are connected.
Davey Tree will lead the study, funding half of the planning consultant’s services up to $10,000, and will present its findings to the Parks and Rec board. Davey Tree expects to complete the planning process by December 2025. According to the ordinance, Kent city leaders and Davey Tree will pursue outside funding sources “until the project is complete or abandoned by both parties.”
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.