BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Earlier this week Mayor Michael Venezia stated that a Bloomfield Police Department ordinance that bans overnight parking on Willard Street and Kilmer Court by vehicles without a residential parking permit will be reconsidered during the Monday, July 17, conference session.
The recently imposed ban was met with complaints by some Franklin Street apartment dwellers at the June 26 township council session.
They said, for them, it made parking harder to find. At that meeting, Venezia promised he would look for a possible compromise.
In a follow-up telephone interview, the mayor said he would ask the BPD for a longer survey. The one that limited parking only to residents of the two affected roadways was conducted three times during a two-day period, in March 2017. Kilmer Court is a cul-de-sac.
“I am going to ask for a five- to seven-day survey,” Venezia said. “If you look at the survey, it looks like the BPD did everything right.”
The half-dozen tenants who complained at the council meeting came from Franklin Tower, located at 165 Franklin St. They said the ban forced them to park farther away from where they live. They wanted the ban rescinded. These tenants also said they feared a domino-effect of similar restrictions that would push parking spaces for them, and other Franklin Street apartment dwellers, even farther away. Nelson Feliciano, the manager of Franklin Tower, said his building has 65 units and 41 parking spaces onsite.
According to BPD Capt. Glen Wiegand, in March, the BPD Traffic Unit received a complaint from a resident of Kilmer Court.
“The complaint was in regard to overnight parking on their street,” Wiegand said in an email. “The complaint wanted Kilmer Court to become, for overnight parking, a resident-only street.”
According to Wiegand, the traffic unit conducted three parking surveys.
“It was determined through the parking surveys that the majority of vehicles parked on Kilmer Court were not residents of Kilmer Court, and many of which were not even residents of Bloomfield,” he said.
Pointing out that Kilmer Court is a cul-de-sac, Wiegand said Willard Street was added to the ban to help alleviate the parking problem.
“If Kilmer Court was changed to overnight parking for residents only, those vehicles registered to non-residents would simply spill over onto Willard Avenue thus creating additional problems,” he said.
Wiegand provided the Police Department’s survey to The Independent Press.
March 8, at 4:30 a.m.
• 22 vehicles on Kilmer Court; five registered to Kilmer Court residents:17 registered to non-Kilmer Court residents. Of the 17 non-Kilmer vehicles, nine were Bloomfield residents: four were from Franklin Street and five from Willard Street; two were from Newark; and one each from West Caldwell, Somerville, Little Falls, Paterson, West Orange, and New York.
March 8, 10:50 a.m.
• 11 vehicles on Kilmer Court: two registered to Kilmer Court residents; nine vehicles registered to non-Kilmer Court residents, four of which were Bloomfield residents.
March 9, 4:30 a.m.
• 21 vehicles on Kilmer Court: six registered to Kilmer Court residents; and 15 registered to non-Kilmer Court residents. Of the 15 vehicles above, eight are Bloomfield residents: four each from Franklin Street and Willard Avenue; one each from East Orange, South Orange, Clifton, New York, Virginia; and two from Somerville.
The Mayor’s Conference Room is located on the second floor of police headquarters in Municipal Plaza. The conference session will begin at 6:30 p.m. It will be followed by a regular council session.
About the Author
