Public safety committee forms ad hoc group to tackle Edgewood parking, loading and pedestrian safety

Homewood City’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously May 5 to form an ad hoc committee of residents and city staff to pursue near-term and longer-term responses to traffic, parking and public-safety problems in the Edgewood business district.

The committee motion, seconded and carried 4-0, directs city staff and community volunteers to develop recommendations (including possible ordinances, parking-permit programs and engineering changes) for review by the Public Safety Committee. The committee asked for an initial effort to produce options within about 30 days.

The action followed more than an hour of committee discussion and public testimony outlining repeated incidents in the Oxmoor–Saint Charles area, including large delivery trucks parking in designated loading zones during peak times, vehicles parked on both sides of narrow neighborhood streets so that emergency vehicles cannot pass, and at least one past crash involving a child pedestrian. Residents and business owners pressed officials for “teeth” in enforcement and a mix of traffic-engineering and regulatory responses.

Hannah Hightower, who said she lives at 306 Saint Charles Street, told the committee that “large semi trucks park in the loading zone on the first block of Saint Charles next to Odie’s, often in high-traffic times” and that the parked trucks “block half the street” so traffic meets “blindly head on.” She asked the committee to “remove the loading zone and change it to yellow, no parking.”

Tom Walker, a resident of 1402 Roseland Drive, said the problem went beyond parking to vagrancy: “The police force is handcuffed a little bit by some federal legislation and some federal rulings that have prevented them from being able to enforce vagrancy laws,” he said, describing a person he said had been living in a vehicle in Edgewood for about seven months.

City staff and police said they are already enforcing existing ordinances where possible but that some remedies require ordinance changes or agreements with private property owners. City Manager Raps (first name not given in the record) told the committee she had a model ordinance from another Southeast city that would make living in a vehicle an offense; she said she would send that language to the city attorney for review. “It might give us the ability to keep people from doing it,” she said.

Police officials said response times and individual enforcement actions have been prompt when complaints are filed. Chief Ross (police chief) told the committee the department has been responding quickly to calls and will continue enforcement, but he and other staff warned that enforcement alone will not solve underlying parking-inventory constraints.

Committee members and members of the public proposed a range of changes: removing a loading zone next to businesses so trucks must use private lots; converting parts of Saint Charles to no-parking yellow curb; exploring residential permit parking; changing hours of operation for municipal lots to prevent overnight staging by catering trucks; restriping or removing a left-turn lane that staff said is ineffective because parked vehicles intrude into it; and moving a crosswalk so it connects sidewalk to sidewalk rather than sidewalk to parking area.

Patrick Beck, who said he lives at 209 Saint Charles, recommended severing Saint Charles at Stewart Street and converting the block to a dead end or one-way to reduce bar- and restaurant-related traffic coming back to residences. Staff and emergency responders cautioned that physically closing a public road raises legal and emergency-access issues and could shift traffic and parking problems to nearby streets.

Residents and business leaders also discussed options to expand parking inventory. Staff said the city expects roughly 30 additional public spaces as part of a planned road-diet project on Oxmoor but that larger gains depend on private owners agreeing to share lots; staff said those property owners have been reluctant in past negotiations.

After public comment and staff discussion, Councilor Guatman (committee member) moved to create the ad hoc committee, to be managed by the city manager with engineering handling the Oxmoor–Saint Charles work. The motion passed 4-0. Committee members said the ad hoc group should include residents, business representatives and relevant city staff and produce initial recommendations for the committee’s review in about 30 days.

The committee also discussed enforcement tools. Staff said current law permits citations where a roadway is impassable and noted that yellow-curb restrictions at intersections can be enforced but that most weekday parking along Saint Charles is legally allowed because there are no continuous no-parking zones on that block. Several speakers urged the committee to return with ordinance language and enforcement logistics—who issues permits, what the permit radius would be and how the program would be staffed—before putting signage or a permit system into place.

The committee did not adopt specific regulatory changes at the May 5 meeting; the formal outcome was the creation of the ad hoc committee and direction to staff to compile options (including draft ordinances) and engineering drawings for future committee consideration.

Ending: The ad hoc committee is expected to produce an options package for the Public Safety Committee to consider later this month; staff said specific measures—such as yellow curbs, permit parking, or changes to the left-turn lane—would require further legal review, design drawings and a formal vote before taking effect.