Public hearing on changes to winter parking ban set for March 9

LACONIA — Councilors are considering changes to the city’s winter parking ban, meant to ensure its public works department is able to clear the streets of snow during and following snow storms.  

The council’s public works subcommittee reviewed the ordinance governing the rules during a meeting on Feb. 2, and, during the council meeting on Feb. 23, recommended changing the parking ban period — currently Nov. 1-May 1 — to between Nov. 15 and April 15.

Councilors will hold a public hearing on the matter during their meeting on Monday, March 9, to gather input from residents.  

A proposed ordinance attached to the meeting agenda states no vehicles can be parked on a public street between midnight and 6:30 a.m. from Nov. 15 to April 15, unless parking is prohibited during all other hours because of a declared snow emergency. 

Vehicles found parked contrary to the ordinance can be towed at the owner's expense pursuant to the discretion of the city’s public works and police departments. If Police Chief Matt Canfield deems it reasonable to dismiss the parking restriction before April 15, he’s got the authority to do so, after consulting City Manager Kirk Beattie and employees of public works.

According to the revised ordinance, the city’s police chief or public works director have the authority to declare a snow emergency parking restriction after consulting the city manager. Vehicles cannot be parked on a public street at any time when snow emergency parking restrictions are in effect. 

The only proposed change to the existing ordinance is the shortening of its time frame. 

Local resident Sue Higgins on Feb. 23 said she doesn’t like the winter parking ban, because it is inconvenient and the period it's in effect is unnecessarily long. 

“I had talked to Kirk earlier this year about having the city review the snow parking ban in the City of Laconia,” Higgins said. “The reason for me asking for the [review] was, well, personally, I don’t have a place to park in the winter time when you take street parking away, for me personally.”

Higgins noted state law requires one parking spot per unit, a recent decrease, and said parking will continue to be an issue. 

“Zoning is changing, and the state is allowing things to be built with less parking per unit,” she said. “Parking is only going to become a bigger problem, especially with [accessory dwelling units] being built on properties. We’re trying to look outside of the box to put people in homes, but they have to have a place to park. I did take the liberty, and I will share it with you. There are 13 cities in the state, and I printed the parking bans for all 13 of them. So far this year, the Laconia parking ban, which starts Nov. 1 and goes until May 1, from Nov. 1 until now, it's 115 days, and so far we’ve had 30 storms and that includes snowflakes.” 

The ban is too long without justification based on weather patterns, she said.  

“There are a lot of days in the winter months where people are not allowed to park on the street where there’s just no reason for it. This year, our first significant snow storm was Dec. 3, so we had 33 days of our parking ban in effect before we even had one snowfall,” she said. “I do think that one of the ways to think outside of the box for this would be, is maybe we could sell a permit for people to park on the street in the winter time, and with the permit comes rules. There are plenty of cities in this state that do just that: they sell a permit and if you do not get your car off when there’s a snowstorm, then you don’t get a permit again next time.”