The implications of putting a grocery store in a residential neighborhood are becoming apparent since the new Hy-Vee opened last month four blocks north of the downtown in Jefferson.
The Jefferson city council at its regular meeting March 24 had on its agenda a recommendation from the city’s street committee to place six new STOP signs on Adams, Reed, Wilson and Vine Streets. The discussion was tabled to the next meeting.
Also on the agenda was the first reading of an ordinance prohibiting parking on both sides of Wilson and Vine Streets immediately adjacent to the Hy-Vee property, as well as on the south side of Reed St from Wilson to Elm St, and on the north side of Adams from Vine to Elm.
Police chief Dave Morlan had made the recommendations to the street committee “in the best interests of the city.” He told the city council that trucks turning off Elm St onto Adams can’t make the turn when cars are parked on Adams. “It’s an ongoing thing with the trucks coming and going, and it’s important to have ease of access for emergency vehicles if there were a fire or something in that area,” Morlan told the council.
Curt Hastings lives at the corner of Vine and Reed, directly across from the new store. He has not supported the construction of the Hy-Vee at that location, and he expressed dissatisfaction on a number of issues to the council Tuesday night. In the past months he has complained numerous times to the police department about construction vehicles parked in front of his home, but he told the council he is against posting a no parking zone there.
He said the vehicles that park on the street now that construction is complete are primarily owned by Hy-Vee employees, not customers or residents. He suggested city officials talk with Hy-Vee management about parking.
His family’s business, Hastings Funeral Home, is located at the corner of Elm and Adams. Council members Gary Von Ahsen and Larry Teeples both told Hastings that the funeral home would be allowed to use the north side of Adams to line up funeral processions, and that with parking prohibited there, it would guarantee that space would be available. “If it’s left as parking, you can’t move those cars. With this plan, you’d have free access to the street,” Von Ahsen said.
Hastings said there are times that the funeral home parks its vehicles on the street there, aside from funerals. “It’s a right we’ve had since we built there in 1975. I don’t like giving up my rights,” he said. “I think the parking problems can be solved by Hy-Vee with a redesign of their parking lot and making a fire avenue through the center of their parking lot.”
Chantalle Long, owner of Excuses Pizza, Pasta and Subs at the corner of Elm and Washington but not a resident of the neighborhood, said she thinks it’s unfair to residents on the south side of Adams St to burden them with the added parking that might result in front of their homes.
Long said she would like STOP signs along Washington St and a traffic light on Elm at Washington. “If this is a safety issue for the residents of Greene County, that needs to be addressed because on Elm St at Washington there have been numerous accidents,” she said. “With the store there now, there’s going to be more traffic flowing that way.”
Teeples emphasized that the proposed no parking zones aren’t for the benefit of Hy-Vee. “It’s for the safe movement of traffic. We’ve had cars on both sides, or a car here and a truck there, and you can’t get through, citizens driving down the street. It’s hard to get through. By taking the cars off one side, it’s easier to get through,” Teeples said. (For an example of what Teeples was speaking of, see the police report for March 24 under the Courts/LEC tab of GreeneCountyNewsOnline.)
Bill Monroe, owner of Medicap Pharmacy at the corner of Elm and Adams, spoke, first noting that his business has grown since Hy-Vee Pharmacy moved from its downtown location. He suggested the council let Hy-Vee work on the parking situation for a month or two. He said the number of employees at Hy-Vee would likely decrease and employees parking on the street would not be an issue.
Council member Shannon Black said the item was not placed on the agenda “willy-nilly” and she asked for more information from the street committee. Von Ahsen repeated what he had said about the process of getting input from police chief Morlan. “It’s a good recommendation and we ought to proceed,” Von Ahsen said.
Teeples also said again that he thought the proposal accommodated the concerns of Hastings Funeral Home. “When we said it would be no parking on the north side of Adams, I thought it was a good move,” Teeples said.
After more than 30 minutes of discussion, mayor Craig Berry suggested the ordinance be put up for first reading as it stands, saying it could be amended before a second or third reading. “We can have the street committee look at it again before we get to the final reading,” council member Lisa Jaskey said.
The motion to approve the first reading was approved unanimously.
The lot where Hy-Vee is located was an elementary school for decades. Longtime residents who attended school there don’t recall there being a problem then with parking on the street or traffic congestion. There were fewer than 20 staff members at the school, and some of them walked or car-pooled to work. Parents who visited the store could easily find parking on the street. “A different time from today,” is how one former student described it.
