A growing number of Prince George’s County, Maryland, residents are getting fed up with how difficult it can be to park their cars near their homes — or have a friend visit and find a spot nearby as well.
It can be seen as a quality-of-life issue that makes it hard to enjoy the simpler moments without stressing about one more thing.
Plus, some of the problems facing residents are just plain “tacky,” as one person put it during a Prince George’s County Council committee meeting on Thursday.
That’s why District 3 Council member Eric Olson has a group of different bills that all seek to do the same thing — make it easier for people to park in front of their homes.
On Thursday, two bills — one that would prohibit people from using cones to block on-street parking spaces, and another that would prohibit people from parking trailers on residential streets during nighttime hours — were both discussed.
“We have a lot of cars, a lot of people, and the neighborhoods weren’t designed for this many people in them,” Olson said. “It’s creating a lot of spillover effect with people having to feel like they have to place cones and other objects in the roadway to preserve their parking spaces.”
He agreed with several residents who said that added clutter to the roads, never mind the confusion when a big orange cone is suddenly plopped onto the street.
“The roadways are for public use. They’re not for private use,” he said. “So we need to make sure that we don’t put clutter in the roadways.”
More than half a dozen people showed up to testify about the bill that aims to stop people from blocking off a parking spot with a cone. Many cited safety issues as one concern — saying they could be confusing for emergency responders; but, many simply want to make their neighborhood look better.
“These stupid cones that are sitting everywhere are ridiculous. It makes the whole place look tacky,” said Catherine Adams, who has lived in her Riverdale home since 1958.
Michael Farley, who also lives in Riverdale, blamed the increasing number of single-family homes with grown children or other adults living inside of them.
“Now it appears that you have mother, father, but you also have maybe three or four other adults living in the same household,” he said. “So instead of having one car they’re responsible for, it’s four or five cars they’re responsible for, and there’s just not enough room, either curbside or in the driveway to make it workable.”
But in another part of Riverdale, John Arrington said a parking shortage in his neighborhood of single-family homes is caused by a nearby apartment building.
“Those are the ones that are starting to take over the parking in the resident neighborhood,” Arrington said. He requested a permitting process in his neighborhood.
The council committee hearing the bill held off on taking any action, after representatives from various county agencies that could be called on to enforce this measure raised concerns about having the authority to do so. It included questions about which agency would be responsible for removing the cones, and how they would be disposed of.
Olson expects those differences to get worked out in the coming weeks.
His bill that would prevent noncommercial trailers of any kind from being parked on residential streets between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. did pass in committee and will go before the full council.
Last week, a unanimous council gave preliminary approval to his bill to prohibit the parking of boats and other watercraft on county roads. It’s on track for final passage in April.
“People are frustrated when they’ve owned a house for decades, and then you look out your window or you walk out your front door, and there’s clutter or large objects like big boats or big trailers in the roadway,” Olson said. “We want to maintain a good, solid quality of life in our neighborhoods, and people deserve that, right?”
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