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Parking dominates council discussion

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Photo by Sam Chandler

The Mountain Brook City Council on Monday, Oct. 14, devoted most of its pre-meeting discussion to parking in Mountain Brook Village.

In September, the council voted to prohibit people who work in the village from parking on Canterbury Road.

Mountain Brook Police Chief Ted Cook and Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Suzan Doidge both advocated for the change, saying that employee parking on the road had been interfering with business. 

The ordinance passed without opposition. But at the council meeting, one business owner expressed his discontentment. 

Scott Renshaw, the owner of Salon 2412 at 2412 Canterbury Road, said he felt singled out by the ordinance and would like the city to repeal it. 

“To me, as a business owner, I can promise you I would not be tying up space if there was a parking issue,” Renshaw told the Council. “Around Christmas, we move our vehicles up the hill where they should be.”

People who work in the village are supposed to park on its outskirts so they don’t take spaces from customers. Renshaw said his employees know where to park but don’t feel comfortable walking to and from their vehicles at night, after the salon closes. 

“It’s just the safety of getting there from where we’re supposed to park to our business,” he said. 

Most parking spaces in the village can be occupied for four hours. Cook said in a previous council meeting that his department has recognized that employees often park in one space, move their vehicles after four hours and then park in another space to avoid getting a ticket. 

Councilwoman Alice Womack said that has taken away parking from customers of village businesses. 

“I hope our business owners are with us in this effort to make this a business-friendly community by parking in employee parking, because we want to make it easy and we want those spaces to be available because we want people shopping here,” Womack said. “...We continue to hear on a regular basis people are leaving at lunch hour because they can’t find a parking spot.”

To deter employees from continuing their practice, the council is weighing whether to reduce parking from four to three hours in the village. A survey conducted by Doidge and Rozetha Burrow, the police department’s business liaison officer, found that the vast majority of village business owners are in favor of the change. 

Burrow reported at the Oct. 14 meeting that 56 business owners said they are for it and only 10 said they are against it. 

“Everybody was pretty much, ‘Yes, change it to three,’” Burrow said. 

Although he opposes the employee parking prohibition on Canterbury Road, Renshaw said he is on board with the parking time limit change. 

“Honestly, the time is not an issue for me at all, whether it be three or four hours,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to make a difference in anybody’s business. Three hours is fine with me.”

The council did not make a final decision about the matter at the meeting, nor did it repeal the ordinance. But councilors did ask Burrow to collect input from business owners about extending the ban on employee parking to other streets in the village. 

The council also said it will explore ways in which it can enhance safety for employees who have to walk long distances to their vehicles at night. 

In other business, the council:

The City Council will hold its next meeting Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. in the council chamber of City Hall. There also will be a public involvement meeting in the council chamber Nov. 14 from 5-7 p.m. regarding the sidewalk project along Pine Ridge Road from Overton Road to Old Leeds Road. 

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