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Clifton council moves to pursue side‑street one‑way ordinance, orders resident survey amid heated neighborhood pushback
Summary
After police recommended continuing temporary one‑way traffic control used during Friday prayer sessions, the council voted to prepare an ordinance for a second option that adds one‑way side streets and directed a 4–6 week resident survey; residents objected, citing permit parking concerns and mosque expansion impacts.
The Clifton Municipal Council on May 5 directed administration to draft an ordinance based on a traffic division proposal that would create permanent one‑way side streets on some neighborhood cross streets while the city collects public input.
Police staff told the council the department can provide temporary one‑way operations during high‑traffic prayer sessions without overtime and recommended accumulating additional traffic data before making permanent changes. The department said its temporary operations previously reduced bottlenecks and did not require overtime because uniformed patrol officers handled the brief traffic control duty.
"What we do know is that when parking is at its maximum and two‑way traffic is present, 7‑foot drive aisles do not allow for efficient traffic flow and preclude fire department operations," a councilmember summarized from the traffic memo, emphasizing public‑safety risk in heavily parked streets.
Several councilmembers supported moving to the "second option" in the memo, which would create additional one‑way streets on cross streets, and asked staff to run a resident survey and schedule two ordinance readings (a month‑long process). One councilmember said the change might be "an unpopular decision, but it is one that is going to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public." Another urged careful neighborhood outreach before permanently changing patterns.
Residents who spoke during the public comment period expressed strong concerns about permit parking access, construction impacts from a nearby mosque expansion and the inconvenience of permanent one‑way streets. "We're not saying religion; we're saying we want quality of life and safety for our neighborhood," one resident said during public comment when describing permit‑parking requests and traffic problems near a worship site under expansion.
Council direction: staff will prepare a draft ordinance for the second option that includes side‑street one‑ways, run a community survey (estimated 4–6 weeks) ahead of the ordinance readings, and work with police traffic staff to provide data and operational details. The council emphasized that resident input will be sought and the ordinance will be brought back for two readings.
