New parking restrictions approved for Olive and Pacific Streets
TaMya Bracy
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — The St. Joseph City Council passed an ordinance to prohibit parking along both Olive and Pacific Streets at its last meeting.
Parking will be prohibited on the north side of Olive Street from Sixth to Eighth streets and on the south side of Pacific Street from 33rd Street to the Belt Highway.
Public Works received a request from a business on Olive Street regarding traffic concerns caused by parking.
Abe Forney, the city’s director of Public Works and Transportation, said the parking restriction was put into place due to safety.
“One of the property owners, they said there was a lot of foot traffic in the area, which was causing a hazard for pedestrians in that area,” said Forney.
Forney said with the new parking restrictions, pedestrians will no longer be crossing the street to get to parked cars.
“It will no longer cause that hazard for the traffic driving through on Olive to have that hazard of people walking across the street as frequently as they were,” he said.
Although some areas for parking are no longer acceptable, Forney said there’s still plenty of parking in the area.
“Not specifically on Olive, but in the surrounding area, parking lots and so on,” he said.
Forney said letters were sent out to residents and businesses in the area, advising them of the proposed ordinance.
“They (had) the opportunity to put their comment in,” Forney said. “Then we run that through the traffic commission, and we give them the opportunity to voice their concerns. Then we ran it through the city council.”
The parking restrictions are now in effect on both Olive and Pacific Streets.