The Plymouth Board of Works is revisiting the issue of parking on Harrison Street. The stretch of Harrison between Michigan and Plum sees frequent truck and school bus traffic, leading the board of works back in April to ban parking from Michigan to the alley half a block to the west. But a month later, the board decided to add one parking space back, after a resident complained about the change.
During this week’s board meeting, however, Plymouth Street Superintendent Jim Marquardt said the compromise has caused some new problems. “I know both neighbors hate each other, from what I’ve gained on my phone calls with it,” he said. “I think it’s a power struggle to who gets the one parking spot. It’s a tight parking spot for the alley, for people coming out of the alley. I don’t know if the solution would be go back to how we originally stated: no parking from the alley up to Michigan.”
Board member Jeff Houin suggested going a step further. “I’ve been paying a lot more attention and trying to drive that street more and more, and the more I do, the more I lean toward [Common Council member Don] Ecker’s view that I think it should be no parking all the way from Michigan to Plum,” he said. “I think that the whole stretch of Harrison Street is going to be a problem.”
Plymouth Police Chief David Bacon supported Houin’s proposal. “I would like it no parking,” Bacon said. “It would make it easier for us. Then we don’t have people – now, they call and complain, ‘Well, that car’s been sitting there too long.’ We don’t know. We’ve tagged vehicles down there, and we know they shuffle them. But it is a main route for semis; it’s a main route for the school buses in the morning. It’ll just make things easier, and if there’s no parking all along, it makes stuff easy for us because if somebody’s parked there, it’ll be cut-and-dry.”
At the same time, Houin expressed concern about the city being called upon to resolve disputes between neighbors. In the end, board members decided to give Harrison Street residents a chance to offer input on the proposed changes before making any final decisions.
