Fremont City Council members passed an ordinance to provide restrictions for on-street parking and for parking lots in the downtown area.
After much discussion, the council voted 6-1 to approve the ordinance with councilmember Brad Yerger casting the dissenting vote.
The municipal code states that no vehicle is to be parked continuously on any street or public parking lot in the downtown area for more than two hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
This parking time limit doesn’t apply to public streets in the downtown area that are directly in front of residential single-family homes.
The ordinance also states it’s unlawful to park vehicles — except for automobiles, pickups or lesser tonnage vehicles — in any city owned or city leased public parking lot.
No motor vehicles can be parked in public parking lots between 1-5 a.m.
These overnight hour limitations don’t, however, apply to vehicles parked on any city owned or city leased parking lots in the downtown area.
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This comes prior to when tenants will occupy new apartments in the 505 Building downtown and can park in these lots.
In the downtown parking lots, it’s unlawful to park a motor vehicle in an excess of 72 consecutive hours.
Initially, a time limit wasn’t part of the ordinance for the downtown parking lots. Fremont City Administrator Jody Sanders said this was because if a husband and wife living in a downtown apartment each has their own car and they go on vacation — if there was even a 48-hour time limit — they possibly could have a vehicle towed.
“The crux of the question is ‘What do you do when people travel?’” Sanders said.
Councilmember Brad Yerger had wanted an 18-hour time limit for parking in the lots, the same as residential streets. Councilmember Glen Ellis mentioned a 72-hour limit, which Councilmember Sally Ganem agreed with, adding this limit should apply all week to avoid the confusion over differing times for weekdays and weekends.
Ganem encouraged a more open-ended amendment to see what problems might arise and then address those as they come along.
“We’re not going to be able to address every issue that comes up right now,” she said.
She mentioned another city that made several rules, then had trouble enforcing them.
Yerger said he believed the ordinance needed further refinement.
Ellis also advocated not voting on it Tuesday night and floating it to out to citizens and having the Business Improvement District (BID) look at it.
Yerger made a motion to continue the item to the next meeting. That vote failed 2-5.
Before that vote, Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg spoke about all the discussion that has taken place. Spellerberg noted public and council comment during two previous readings and changes made.
“This has been a very comprehensive process and I think we’ve had a very open-minded process,” Spellerberg said.
Spellerberg advocated for moving ahead.
“Are we going to find a perfect solution to this problem? No,” he said. We’re having a lot of great development downtown — a lot of good things happening. I think what’s before you tonight from the city’s standpoint is something that is simple, something that we can work with, something that has teeth attached to it. And who’s to say we don’t revisit this at a later date after we see how it works.”
The board approved the ordinance by a majority vote.
In other business, the board voted to allow the planning commission to grant an exception to allow chain link fencing in a front or street yard, or along property lines, in certain circumstances.
The chain in the ordinance adds language stating that the planning commission may have a public hearing to grant the special exception if the commission finds the proposal compatible with the surrounding area.
Yerger made a motion, which the council approved, to add “and the aggrieved citizens were provided adequate notice and may not have presented a compelling objection.”
The change also requires notice of the public hearing to be published in the local newspaper and either a sign placed in the general vicinity of the action or a letter of the public hearing to be sent to property owners within 300 feet of the property.
It adds that any aggrieved citizen may appeal the action of the Planning Commission to the City Council within 10 days of its action.
In other council action, members voted to approve Spellerberg’s recommendations of Brian Monaghan as a captain and Terry Luthy as a lieutenant for the Fremont Fire Department.
Spellerberg expressed gratitude for Monaghan’s commitment to the city. Monaghan was not able attend the meeting.
The mayor also commended Luthy, who was able to attend.
“Terry is going to do a fantastic job within our fire department and I think him for his willingness to step up as well,” Spellerberg said.
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