Town Council Adds to Parking Reform

Tuesday night, the Westfield Town Council approved an ordinance to limit street parking on Rahway Avenue near Kehler Stadium. The measure will push cars into Edison Intermediate School’s newly expanded parking lot, keeping Rahway Avenue—which piles with cars during football games and other big events—clear for traffic and students who may be trying to cross.

The Edison parking lot expansion, which is expected to add 55 new off-street spots to be utilized during school days and weekends, according to the parking plan published on westfieldnjk12.org under “Important Messages,” is one of three lots near the high school being renovated. The high school lot expansion along Rahway Avenue, under construction now, is expected to add 33 new spots. The armory parking lot, which will be restriped in a more efficient manner, will yield 19 new parking spots.

For years, residents who live near the high school have complained about students parking on their streets, many claiming the high concentration of cars and traffic are an inconvenience and others alleging the students are obscene. In theory, the lot construction will help ease the burden felt by the neighbors and could get over 70 student cars off the street—even more if WHS students can be enticed to park at Edison and walk.

Other measures the Town Council is taking to improve the parking situation around WHS include making Edgar Road, now closed to parking altogether, open to students. Loughlin said students will be able to park on one side of the street—but not in alternate-side style; students will have a permanent side and residents will have theirs. This will add roughly 30 new spots.

Loughlin has said since his campaign in 2009 that while he believes the parking situation badly needs a remedy, it is important not to restrict students from parking their cars. Many students, he said, need their cars to travel to jobs immediately after school.

“As a general rule,” Loughlin said, “most high school parking streets will be half open for student parking.” Parking on Dorian Road west of Rahway Avenue to Hyslip Avenue, which was previously unrestricted on both sides, will become restricted on one side. The same can be said for Dorian Court, Dorian Place, Shadowlawn Drive between Rahway and Hyslip Avenues, and Nottingham Place.

According to the parking study, taking into account both the new restrictions and the added on- and off-street parking within a seven minute walk from WHS—which excludes the Edison lot—students net 27 parking spaces in the neighborhood.

The goal of the parking reform seems to be a more equal distribution of student cars on the neighborhood streets than existed in the past, as well as to try to siphon as many cars off the streets and into lots as practical.