Anniston council discusses yard-parking restrictions

Mar. 3—One member of the Anniston City Council asked the council Tuesday to consider restrictions on parking cars in yards — but not everyone on the council is convinced it's a good idea.

"So many people complain about neighbors parking in their front yards," Councilwoman Millie Harris told council members Tuesday at Anniston City Meeting Center. "The ones complaining feel that it decreases their property value, that it makes the neighborhood look terrible."

Harris brought up the idea of parking restrictions in a work session before Tuesday's regular council meeting, a time when council members often float ideas that later come before the council for a vote.

Harris said yard parking is the top complaint she hears from people in her ward. She said she researched the topic and found that other cities, including Montgomery, have bans on parking in yards. She said other cities enforce the yard-parking ban with fines.

"Basically, I want to open the conversation," Harris said. "We can address it at a later time."

Other council members said yard parking is common in their wards as well, but some saw problems with banning the practice. Some said narrow roads in some parts of the city mean parking on the street is nearly impossible.

"I'm kind of worried about that," said Ward 3 Councilwoman Ciara Smith.

Councilman Jay Jenkins said he sees yard parking often on 10th Street, which he said he considers one of the "gateway roads" that gives people an impression of the city. He said he was concerned about how such a policy might play out on a street like Maple, which he said is too narrow to function as two-lane street. He said the council should consult the Anniston Police Department before drafting a plan.

"I'm supportive of finding a solution here, Jenkins said. "I think we also need to work with APD. I don't think we need to put any additional burden on them."

The council didn't take a vote on the issue.

Comprehensive plan to begin

In its regular meeting, the council did vote 5-0 to spend $150,000 to hire the Tennessee-based consulting company Walker Collaborative to begin work on a comprehensive plan for the city.

"It's something that we probably should have done a long time ago," said Mayor Jack Draper.

Many cities do comprehensive planning, a process that involves collection of data about traffic and economic trends, meetings with the public to discuss a city's goals and eventual drafting of a plan for the city's future. Draper said state law requires cities to do those plans. State Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, last year proposed a bill to withhold state grants from cities that fail to produce such a plan. That bill didn't pass.

In an interview last month, Greg Cochran, director of the Alabama League of Municipalities, said the planning process has shown clear results in some cities. He said that Prattville, after creating a comprehensive plan, came up with proposals that led developments along the interstate such as the city's Bass Pro Shop.

Anniston isn't directly on an interstate highway, and the city population has been shrinking for 20 years.

"I think it's even more important then," he said. "People in the city can say, 'We're not attracting new investment into our community. What is our quality of life? How do we improve it?'"

No one from Walker spoke at the meeting, and the city has not yet announced a date when the planning process will begin.

Surplus properties

City finance director Julie Borelli told council members she'll soon come to them with a plan for disposing of real estate the city owns, but can't use.

Borelli said the city owns 300 parcels, some of them houses that were left abandoned and ultimately became the city's property. Others are parcels the city bought for development — perhaps decades ago — but never developed. She said the 300-parcel number includes properties the city is actually using, though the number of "surplus" properties is high.

"We're trying to come up with a plan to offer these properties for sale," Borelli said. She said that among other things the parcels pose a legal liability problem for the city.

"I'm all for right-sizing," Draper said. "We've got property going all the way back to the time when we were a city of 35,000."

The city has about 21,000 residents now, according to the Census Bureau.

Borelli said many of the parcels have title issues, but that wouldn't be a major problem if neighbors buy empty parcels simply as buffers, without plans to develop them.

"We plan to offer them to neighbors and people who have an interest in the property first," she said.

Jenkins said he supported the idea as long as city officials make sure they're not selling property that could be added to a park or otherwise used by the city.

"I want to make sure we're doing our due diligence and not just having a fire sale," he said.

Capitol & statewide reporter Tim Lockette: 256-294-4193. On Twitter @TLockette_Star.