Each year, autumn brings more than changing leaves and crisp temperatures to Brooklyn Park. Fall is also when the city's contentious on-street parking rule takes effect.
The city of 80,000 residents bans street parking between 2 and 5 a.m. from Oct. 15 to April 15 to allow for snow removal. But city leaders in the past year have debated making changes to the rule, weighing whether to shorten the overnight parking ban by a month, extend it year-round or keep it as is.
The much-debated issue came up for discussion at a recent City Council meeting, where it was again evident that city leaders and residents alike remain split on how to move forward.
"It's one of those issues where clearly the community is divided," City Manager Jay Stroebel said. "We're going to continue to wrestle with this."
A recent community poll showed that about 46 percent of those surveyed favored reducing restrictions, while about 36 percent supported more restrictions and 19 percent would like to keep parking rules the same.
Proponents of shortening the ban point to a growing need for more parking in some areas, especially near apartments and in large households with more vehicles than their driveways can hold. Police say they plan to contact apartment managers in the coming months to dig into potential issues with current parking policies and permitting.
But others would like to see the current rule more consistently enforced or even extended all year. Nearby cities like Brooklyn Center and Plymouth enforce a continuous ban on overnight street parking.
Those who support tighter rules cite concerns over how neighborhood streets congested with parked cars can make access difficult for emergency vehicles and snowplows.
