Published: August 18, 2008 10:15 pm         

Proposed ordinance amendment considered during MAPC

A proposed ordinance amendment considered during the Metropolitan Area Planning commission meeting Monday will give Enid residents more leeway in complying with new residential parking ordinances, city officials say.

The amendment will allow residents who have gravel or dirt driveways to upgrade them with gravel rather than incurring the expense of using concrete. City Manager Eric Benson said the idea came through the code office in response to citizen complaints about the cost of upgrading after the commission prohibited parking in yards.

“If you have a gravel driveway it will allow expansion with gravel. If you have existing concrete it must be expanded with concrete,” he said.

Some yards around town have driveways composed only of two concrete strips with grass between them. In the event those are deteriorated, the resident can pull them out and replace them with gravel as long as the gravel has a border and does not wash into the street. Benson said it is an attempt to allow residents to achieve compliance and save money doing it.

“Chris Bauer (planning administrator) brought it up in May, and it got behind some other pressing issues at the time. The council was reticent to engage it quickly and did the research. We catalogued places in town where it could be done and brought them back to the commission and they requested a ponderous approach,” Benson said.

The old ordinance did not allow parking on the lawn. If residents have the area to enlarge their parking they may do so, but must follow guidelines. For example, if a manhole exists in the driveway, concrete must be poured around it. The area must be an existing driveway.

“It saves the citizen money and gives them more flexibility,” Benson said. “If they have an existing concrete driveway, they can’t use gravel.”

Benson said there are a number of properties in town that have no driveway at all, or have dirt driveways. Some of those yards tend to develop craters after a heavy rain, he said.