Geneva police and staff propose parking reductions and targeted enforcement after South Main speed study

Geneva police and public works officials told the City Council they will pursue several local parking adjustments and stepped‑up enforcement after community complaints and a November radar trailer speed study on South Main Street.

Police Chief Evelyn summarized a 24‑hour radar deployment on South Main that recorded 4,375 southbound vehicles and 3,091 northbound vehicles during the test day. “Four hundred ninety‑one of those were over the posted speed limit,” he said for southbound counts; he reported an average speed of about 29–30 mph and noted many readings clustered in the 36–45 mph range that could reflect measurement parameters.

The nut graf: staff presented a mix of short‑term fixes — removing a few parking spaces at crosswalks and extending no‑parking zones at several intersections — combined with a plan for targeted speed enforcement rather than an immediate change to the posted limit.

Public Works Director Vernutti and Chief Evelyn discussed several specific locations that drew complaints: High Street at Elmwood Place and Grove Street (sight‑distance concerns), East North Street near the canal (concerns tied to a planned nearby development), Washington Street at Nursery/Copeland (intersection sight lines) and South Main Street near the lakeside and the colleges. For High Street staff recommended extending the existing no‑parking zone on the north side to improve sight lines; at East North staff proposed eliminating parking in front of some commercial uses to reduce stacking as traffic volumes rise with the anticipated Duncan site development.

On South Main Street, staff said they have already removed four parking spaces at a crosswalk to improve pedestrian visibility and recommended continuing with signage and enforcement. Chief Evelyn also shared the radar trailer findings: the average speeds were near the posted 30 mph limit but the device recorded hundreds of vehicles in the 36–45 mph band and a small number of anomalous high readings he blamed on batching or reflection errors. “There is a possibility too that we could try conducting another study and lower the parameters down to a five‑mile‑per‑hour gap as opposed to the ten‑mile‑per‑hour gap that we're doing right now,” he said.

Councilors focused on tradeoffs: removing parking eases sight‑distance problems but reduces available curb spaces for residents in neighborhoods where older homes have multiple cars and where short‑term rentals increase demand. “If you remove parking, you're reducing the amount of parking that is available in the street,” Chief Evelyn said, noting that could be a hardship for nearby residents.

On truck traffic and enforcement, councilors pressed the chief about commercial vehicle checks and options to reduce tractor‑trailer traffic through narrow, parked streets. The chief said Geneva lacks on‑staff certified commercial vehicle inspectors and would likely partner with State Police for weigh/inspection operations, but he said the city can schedule periodic targeted checks and coordinate with state police to create a disincentive for heavy trucks to use constrained downtown routes.

The council endorsed staff bringing formal parking‑change resolutions forward (all parking changes require a two‑reading adoption) and directed police to continue focused enforcement. Staff flagged that some recommended changes will return as resolutions at a later meeting for formal adoption.