Shellbark Ridge HOA wants parking restrictions

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Shellbark Ridge Homeowners Association trustee Ron Staab has asked Genoa Township trustees to either ban or limit on-street parking at the Old 3C Highway entrance to the subdivision.

Staab said on-street parking by parents waiting for students along the Hawksbeard Drive entrance to the subdivision — during the time when school is starting and school is ending at Genoa Middle School and Fouse Elementary School — is posing a danger to students.

“There are numerous times when 30 cars are parked at the entrance of the subdivision from Old 3C well into the subdivision,” Staab said at the Dec. 3 trustees’ meeting. “Sometimes on-street parking is 12 cars deep on each side of the street and extending down Steeplebush Avenue for similar distances. This is creating a very dangerous situation for children leaving the school, with kids leaving the sidewalk on the north side of the street and coming out between cars.”

Staab asked trustees to consider several options, including creating a no-parking zone from the Old 3C entrance continuing on both the north and south sides of Hawksbeard and extending at least 300 feet. He also asked that any no-parking zone be extended along Steeplebush.

“You could also create similar time-restricted no-parking zones, with signs reflecting the drop-off and pickup hours for the two schools,” Staab said. “That would allow parking in front of the homes along the area during nonschool drop-off and pickup times.”

Staab also said a solution would be to have a township police officer at the intersection when school is starting and ending, but added that a police presence would not be a long-term solution to the problem.

“Three weeks ago a young child was hit by a car,” Staab said. “We’re proposing that something be done in that area to take parked cars off of that intersection.”

Trustee Rick Carfagna said part of the problem is the sidewalk configuration. There are sidewalks on both sides of Hawksbeard Drive from the intersection with Old 3C Highway but, after about 75 yards into the subdivision, there is only a sidewalk on the south side of the street, forcing students to walk between parked cars to get to a sidewalk.

“There could be parking restrictions during certain hours, but we would like to communicate with people living in the other houses there,” Carfagna said. “It’s interesting that the county has put this on a list to improve that intersection at Old 3C. They want to put a light there, but they don’t know when.”

Police Chief Steve Gammill said there are similar on-street parking issues throughout the township.

“We follow Ohio Revised Code,” Gammill said. “Anything we do would have to be approved by the trustees. But no matter what we do, it’s human nature — they’re going to find a way around it. Do you want no parking, or no stopping? Without approved signage, we can’t tell people not to park there.”

Gammill recommended that trustees check with the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office for sign language, and asked trustees if they want the more restrictive sign language that would include no stopping along the entrance to the subdivision.

Staab said it would be ideal to start a change in on-street parking at the entrance to Shellbark Ridge when students return from Christmas break.

Township Administrator Paul Wise said any change trustees approve after consulting with the county prosecutor would be followed by a statutory advertisement in the newspaper and a 30-day waiting period.

Old 3C entrance dangerous for students

By Lenny C. Lepola

For The Gazette

Lenny C. Lepola can be reached at 614-266-6093. Email: [email protected].

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