The Ellijay City Council approved a plan that will temporarily restrict some downtown parking spaces, but in a different way than originally planned by the Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
Plans approved at Monday’s city council meeting do not include blocking off any roundabout parking spaces for the DDA-recommended trial period, only parallel parking spaces on River Street.
The no-parking trial period was originally designed by the DDA to see if limiting parking on the roundabout would improve traffic flow and safety around the busy town square.
When meeting last week, members of the DDA voted to revise their initial plans for the trial period, which originally included temporarily blocking all 18 parking spaces on the roundabout. The revised plan called for spaces on the side of the roundabout closest to South Main Street to be temporarily blocked and those on the side closest to North Main Street to be left open. Parallel parking spaces along River Street were also included in the revised test run.
The DDA approved taking those plans before the city council for a vote, which their chairman, Reece Sanford, did at the Oct. 18 council meeting.
Several downtown Ellijay merchants, including Mountain Treasures owners Benny and Cheryl Adams, also attended the council meeting and a workshop that preceded.
“I’m not opposed to anything continuing to build this city, which is thriving. In my opinion, this is not a broke thing that needs to be fixed,” said Benny Adams, who told councilmembers and Mayor Al Hoyle that taking away parking on the roundabout would give it “a deader kind of look.”
Adams noted, if money is there for it, beautification and flashing crosswalks would be better projects.
Councilman Tom Crawford told Sanford he was astonished that a recommendation for the test run was still being made after a Sept. 21 town hall meeting held by the DDA to address the topic was “a resounding no.”
“Why have a town hall if you’re not going to listen to the input of citizens,” Crawford said.
Sanford said he thinks the DDA did listen to the input they received.
“Not every voter was at that town hall. We met with the people on the south side We met with people on River Street. They want it,” he said.
Crawford wondered why the trial run has to be done at the busiest time of year for downtown businesses. Councilwoman Sandy Ott, also the city council’s representative on the DDA advisory board, said the busiest time of year is really when it needs to be done.
“Traffic in January, even though it is still busy, would be very different from fall,” she said.
Councilman Al Fuller suggested doing the test run with a smaller number of parking spaces.
“I wouldn’t be opposed if it was in a place where everybody wanted it. To do everything all at one time, I’m not sure about that,” he said.
Sanford told the council that a lot of planning went into the trial period proposal, which is not a knee-jerk reaction.
“We’re just here to make recommendations. We’ve met with a bunch of people and read a lot of reports. We’ve looked at other towns that have tried it. Jasper’s got a street that’s doing it. We know there’s merit to our suggestion, but y’all are elected to make the decisions,” he said during the workshop.
When the agenda item came to a vote, councilman Kevin Pritchett motioned to change the area of the restricted parking to just River Street. That motion passed.
Sanford said the proposed test area extends from where River Street meets the roundabout (beside Ellijay Wood Fired Pizza) to River Street Tavern. Oct. 23-Jan. 2 is the proposed timeframe in which barricades will be put up, making those parallel spaces inaccessible.
At their Oct. 12 meeting, Sanford and DDA members Melinda Hadden, Sarah Burnette, Ellen Grant and Keith Nunn also discussed the possibility of where temporary loading zones could be designated if the River Street spaces are blocked.
Church Street and North Church Street were mentioned as possibilities, but a definite temporary loading zone has not yet been established.