Three parking ordinances that will affect many Ball State University students passed at the Muncie City Council meeting Monday night, much to the displeasure of some campus-area residents.
Whitney Stump, a 2004 Ball State graduate who lives on Main Street, came to the meeting prepared to speak in opposition with a petition signed by more than 50 people who objected to the ordinances.
"I had heard about the changes on Greenwood and then my street," Stump said, before talking about his total of $500 in parking tickets. "I wouldn't want students to run into the same problems I do. So, I told people about the vote and the possible outcomes."
The parking plan will change restrictions on 35 roads near campus, making two-hour parking available on one side from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday on 25 of the roads and totally restricting parking on 10 of the roads.
The ordinances were introduced to the Muncie City Council with the support of the University Area Landlord Association, which also helped draft the plan, as well as the Riverside Normal-City Neighborhood Association.
Residents will be able to obtain only two parking passes per house, and the passes will be at no cost to residents.
The plan will take effect on Aug. 15 -- the week before Fall Semester begins.
The plan was introduced to decrease noise, trash and air pollution, limit hazards to pedestrians and bicyclists as well as improve traffic flow. However, for all of the positives the plan was touted to create, it was still opposed by many area homeowners.
The first speaker against the plan, local resident Chris Hiatt, pointed out many problems he and a group of more than 50 others saw in the ordinances. Many complaints focused on the lack of police and code-enforcement officers keeping a regular patrol in the areas. The group also mentioned parties and violations of city codes as problems.
The group of objectors, many of whom are long-time area residents and live in Zone 3, expressed their opposition to the ordinances. Zone 3 is defined in the plan as the area within the boundaries of Riverside Avenue and Wheeling avenues, White River Boulevard and Jackson and Dicks streets.
Another objection raised by Stump, who said he received his tickets because of a lack of proper parking spaces on his rented property, was that creating the new ordinances could cause a spike in rental prices, as there will be an increased need for off-street parking. City codes state that there should be off-street parking spaces provided for each non-related individual in a residence.
"Landlords haven't created enough off-street parking," Stump said. "This [ordinance] will create more problems than it fixes."
During the meeting, many non-student residents agreed that by not meeting city codes that allot one space to each individual in a residence, landlords are adding to the problem.
City Council member Chuck Leonard said he doesn't believe the landlords are at fault but that Ball State should be taking the blame for the overburdened streets.
"Ball State knows they have X amount of students and X amount of parking spots," Leonard said. "They're not providing places for them. This problem is going to continue until someone totally fixes it."
Ball State's Director of Parking Services, Gene Burton, had no comment about the school's lack of representation at the meeting but said that the plan will affect the parking situation for students.
"I think we're just going to have to wait and see," Burton said on Tuesday. "When you're talking about reducing the number of vehicles in the neighborhood, they've got to go somewhere."
Because of the proposal, Ball State is looking into options for improving campus parking conditions. Burton said that he is currently looking into places where parking spaces could be added and places where current parking conditions could be improved.
"Hopefully, there won't be a problem, but I think it's prudent on the University's part to at least be prepared," he said. "I think we need to be a little proactive."
Glenn Augustine, Ball State's associate director of university communications, said that the parking burden is on the city, not the school for bringing students to park on local streets.
"The university was not asked to be a liaison on the parking issue or any other issue," Augustine said. "Had the university been, it's likely we would have provided somebody. ... The city's decision on how to control parking on those streets is really up to them."
Augustine pointed out other transportation that students could use to get to campus, such as buses near commuter lots which offer around 3,480 spots combined. He also said that the new McKinley parking garage was built in response to community interest in having a parking center near the heart of campus.
"In many ways, this is the universal issue that colleges deal with, and that is parking and where people prefer to park," Augustine said. "People may not prefer to park where parking is available, but we cannot make parking available everywhere."
Steve Buck represented the University Area Landlord Association at the meeting and was instrumental in the creation of the plan. While creating the plan, the organization met with various neighborhood associations. However, Buck said that many of the complaints about the ordinance came from people the plan was meant to help.
"I was really disappointed," Buck said. "There were a lot of people who must have been confused about some of the current ordinances. This plan is less restrictive than current ordinances because of the hanging tags."
Buck said that the way the permits are used is what adds to the plan's convenience. All residents with passes -- both home owners and renters -- will be able to give the new passes to visitors, assuming that the residents use their provided off-street parking spaces. This differs from the previous plan which only utilized bumper stickers.
"I want to know what people without parking have been doing up to this point," Buck said. "If everyone lived with the ordinances, then everything would be fine. I sympathize with those who feel that their parking is being taken away."
Buck pointed out that the plan could force many landlords who have not met the requirements for off-street parking to provide spaces for residents. However, he also said that the meeting's outcome was not what he expected. Rather, he thought many campus-area residents would be supportive of the plan.
"Those of us who were for this plan were very somber leaving the meeting," Buck said. "It was a hollow victory."
Council member Alison Quirk, a Ball State graduate, introduced the plan to help ease some of the problems residents and landlords had with the current parking situation around campus. Groups in favor of the plan assert that by eliminating or limiting parking in these areas, streets will become more accessible to city maintenance vehicles and emergency vehicles and the flow of traffic will be easier.
"I think any time you change something like this it will cause some confusion," Quirk said. "We're hoping to benefit these areas."
During the course of the meeting, many homeowners used the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," to defend their positions. Those who were for the plan said it was there to benefit all residents.
The only consensus that was reached between the two parties was that they would agree to disagree.
"Anywhere there's parking, you're going to have parking issues," Leonard said.
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