Council members held a workshop Monday night with various administrative departments to collaborate on legislation aimed at addressing overnight parking citywide. Attorney Stephen Angell shared that in the past year and a half, he has had discussions on overnight parking with no less than six council people. At the Dec. 5 meeting, council members offered ideas on what they would like to see in the ordinance and listened to concerns from the Department of Public Works.

In October, Councilwoman Aniece Germain introduced an ordinance to address overnight street parking. Under city code, overnight street parking exceeding two hours between 1 and 7 A.M. is prohibited. Germain’s proposal sought to allow owners of single-family and multi-family homes (with four adults who have a valid driver’s license) to apply for a parking permit that would let them keep their vehicle on the street throughout the entire night. While Council President Chris Paplauskas had made a motion at the October meeting to table the ordinance, Germain decided to withdraw the ordinance since, if the item were tabled, two-thirds of the council would have to vote it back to the floor; Germain didn’t want to depend on the majority of the council to vote it back on.

At Monday’s meeting, Angell said the purpose of the workshop is so a majority of council members can meet and have an open discussion. He added that public safety has weighed in on this issue in years past and a traffic study was conducted in 2017.

“There has been work done in bits and pieces on this over the years, so we need to sort through those bits and pieces,” said Angell.

Angell said in the workshop format, public participation is not required; however, the work is to be conducted under the eye of the public. Once the council creates a legislative product and it’s introduced in committee, that’s when council members can start taking public comment.

Germain asked the administration what parts of the previously proposed ordinance they agreed/disagreed with as well as what they proposed.

Chief of Staff Anthony Moretti said Mayor Ken Hopkins has “open ears to this” and is sympathetic to the issue. He said the mayor is also listening to concerns from fire, police and DPW. Since Cranston’s police and fire departments voiced concerns at the October Ordinance Committee meeting, the administration pulled up the video recording from this meeting. Since council members were present for the meeting, they asked that the recording be emailed to them.

At the October ordinance Committee meeting, Fire Chief James Warren said overnight street parking affects the department’s response time – especially when firetrucks already have a hard time getting around older neighborhoods such as Edgewood, Arlington and Auburn. These streets become even narrower in the winter with snowfall.

Chief of Police Colonel Michael Winquist agreed with Warren’s emergency response time concerns.

He added that overnight street parking would make stealing easier for the average criminal who could now walk up and down streets trying each car door rather than having to approach cars parked in driveways. According to Winquist, if there’s a narcotics transaction or someone looking to burglarize a house, it’s a lot harder for people to blend in if there are no cars on the street between 1 and 7 A.M. There was also concern of visibility when individuals are backing out of the driveway because the driver’s view may be inhibited as well as people parking overnight on the street without a permit.

At Monday night’s meeting, Director of Public Works Richard Bernardo shared that he met with multiple cities and towns (Pawtucket, Providence, Newport and Central Falls) to discuss overnight street parking so Cranston can avoid problems that the other locations are having.

DPW suggested that an applicant would show the city its registered vehicles for the address and the city would review what’s capable for that address.

“If they have two cars and access in a driveway for two cars, there’s not a need [for a permit],” Bernardo said.

In the big picture, Bernardo said the city would need to evaluate every roadway’s width and length and subtract driveways, hydrants and intersections. This evaluation would allow the city to see how many cars can safely fit on a street and whether or not a street would be eligible for to have overnight street parking. Additionally, which side of the street the cars park on would need to be determined. Bernardo inquired where these cars would go in snow emergencies and had concerns of garbage pickup.

“It’s not that we’re opposed, but we see a lot of work that needs to be done in advance of any kind of ordinance,” Bernardo said.

There was a question about who would administer the permit process; this person would deal with the application process, renewal process, collection of fees and issuance of stickers.

Moretti thought the Clerk’s Office would be best suited for this task. Meanwhile, Paplauskas suggested the VIN station or the police department because he wants to put somewhere in the ordinance that the car needs valid insurance and is registered.

“I think that’s something the police department could check and not the City Clerk’s office,” said Paplauskas.

Paplauskas also suggested that instead of the ordinance saying ‘four adults,’ the legislation should say ‘four licensed drivers’ since a family of four may have two adults and two teenagers all of whom can drive.

Toward the end of the meeting, Bernado said he doesn’t think this project would be done in house. As a next step, he will call engineering firms to look into the costs of analyzing Cranston’s roadways.