For the time being, an overnight parking ordinance will remain on the books in Haddonfield, after the borough held several public information sessions on the topic.
Mayor Tish Colombi said the commissioners discussed the ordinance last week at its work session meeting and won’t be removing it at this time. There are also discussions of extending the time prohibiting cars on streets at night by an hour, setting it from 1 to 5 a.m.
Currently the ordinance prohibits cars to be parked on Haddonfield streets from 2 to 5 a.m. each morning.
“Yes we decided to keep it (the restriction). There has not been anything written, but it seems that the majority of people who expressed their opinions about it were strongly against it,” she said.
Public opinion seemed to be in favor of keeping the ordinance, Colombi said. The general consensus was that people would never move their cars off the streets even if they had garages, she said, thus crowding the roadways each day.
Commissioner Ed Borden prompted the discussion in mid-April. Borden said the ordinance was a time drain on the police department, pulling an officer off the street each night for almost an hour to record license plate numbers that had been called in by residents requesting to park their cars overnight on the street.
On several occasions, Borden said it’s the single largest area of friction between the police department and the residents of Haddonfield.
There are currently 144 permits for overnight parking issued for 2012. If the ordinance is repealed, the borough would be losing around $15,000 to $16,000 in revenue from overnight parking tickets and fees for the overnight parking permits.
A ticket for an overnight parking offense costs $18, of which the borough receives $6.50. The rest of the ticket cost goes to state mandated charities and other various funds.
