THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412020273
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Who says you can't fight city hall? Not only can you fight. Sometimes you can win. Sort of.
Brenda McCormick, who's made a name and a career fighting bureaucracies, fought and won the other day in traffic court. She beat 23 parking tickets issued over a period of months for violating the residential parking permit program on the block on which she lives at the Oceanfront.
Ms. McCormick argued that the tickets were issued under a city ordinance requiring that 51 percent of a block's residents approve the parking-restriction plan. Ms. McCormick could find no evidence of her block's approval. The city produced none in court. Case(s) dismissed.
The city seems to think that doesn't matter. If so, the city is wrong. It ought to play by its own rules, and be seen to.
True, an ordinance enacted this summer extends residential parking restrictions, no block approval required, over 80 blocks of Oceanfront neighborhoods, including Ms. McCormick's. And such a mess has parking there been that a city survey showed most residents favor restrictions.
But the survey was rushed and spotty, and the ordinance was timed to beat the crush of Labor Day visitors. Which it did. But the process renewed suspicions among some residents that the city wants their input about as much as great aunts want to bungee jump. Those suspicions Ms. McCormick's court win will re-renew.
The resort area needs and has restrictions on street parking and incentives to park in city lots, at least during the tourist season. But in the process, city hall needs to present a persuasive case to residents. It should have presented a persuasive case in court. And since it didn't, it should have, soon, a more verifiable account of the residents persuaded of the need for permit parking and, as promised last summer, a public discussion of the current program's problems and any remedies residents may propose. by CNB