If the Bossier Parish Police Jury can solve the parking woes of one Bossier Parish subdivision, other parish neighborhoods with narrow streets may find relief from vehicles that park on their streets.
Residents of Rosedale Place brought their concerns, and some suggested solutions, to the jury last Thursday as a first step to an ordinance that could eliminate parking in subdivision streets and potential problems caused by limited access.
“Our concerns are emergency vehicles not being able to get in there and the school busses not being able to drop off the kids at the designated area. That becomes a liability,” said District 6 Police Juror Rick Avery.
Danny Young, president of the Rosedale Homeowners Association, gave jury members a list of suggestions for an ordinance. Included was an idea to set hours prohibiting on-street parking between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. and another that would permit parking only on one side of streets.
“Our intent is never to hinder anyone from having company or having their family over,” Young said. “Our covenant says it a violation to park overnight, but the problem is the streets don’t belong to us so we can’t enforce this.”
Young said some of the homeowner board’s concerns are the safety of Rosedale employees and the residents there.
Parish Attorney Patrick Jackson said one difficulty the police jury faces is “…trying to craft a solution that is simple enough where any officer coming through Rosedale can enforce it. The law has to be enforced uniformly.”
“We don’t want to put an ordinance on you that everybody doesn’t want. We want agreement from everyone but we don’t want to ignore what we’ve got,” Avery said. “Give us a recommendation of what you would like to see.”
Parking on neighborhood streets is a problem in subdivisions across the parish, he added. An ordinance drafted to solve Rosedale’s issue could be applied to others that face the same difficulty.
Members of the Rosedale association are scheduled to meet Thursday, May 11. At this meeting, homeowners will make recommendations for an ordinance. Their suggestions will be addressed at the May 17 police jury meeting.
