-Chris Norman Administrative Assistant/City Recorder
The ad hoc committee created to review the City of Dickson’s parking regulations will meet
at 6:00 pm Monday, Feb. 13, in the Council Chambers of Dickson City Hall, 600 East Walnut St.
The meeting is open to the public.
Mayor Don L. Weiss Jr. appointed the special committee at the Jan. 9 City Council meeting
after the council unanimously rejected on second reading an ordinance adopting restrictions for
on-street parking. The ordinance had unanimously passed on first reading in May but was
subsequently deferred three times after facing opposition from residents.
In making the motion to reject the ordinance, Councilperson Kyle Sanders (2 nd Ward)
requested the mayor appoint a special committee to review the city’s current regulations and
consider any recommendations for changes.
Mayor Weiss appointed councilpersons Betty Lou Alsobrooks (1 st Ward), Sanders, Stacey
Levine (3 rd Ward) and Dwight Haynes (4 th Ward) to the special committee and asked Haynes to
chair it. No timeline was established for when the committee is expected to make a
recommendation to the full council.
At its May 2, 2022, meeting, the city council approved on first reading Ordinance #1522 to
adopt new regulations regarding on-street parking throughout the city. The change was initiated
after the council previously rejected a request from residents to install speed humps on Poplar
Street.
That rejection, along with rulings by Dickson Municipal Court Judge Stan Reynolds that the
city’s parking regulations were not clear enough, prompted Police Chief Jeff Lewis, Fire Chief
Richard Greer and Public Works Director David Travis to draft recommended changes.
In a presentation to the council, Travis showed pictures of several areas around the city
where vehicles parking on the streets partially block the lane of travel while other vehicles were
parking on sidewalks, which is already prohibited by a city ordinance.
Poplar Street became the example of where on-street parking reduced the lane of travel to
one lane. Fire Chief Greer said the department’s larger trucks could barely pass between parked
vehicles on Poplar Street and in the event of a fire the department would be hindered in making
an aerial attack because the ladder truck would not be able to set up with the stabilization arms
extended.
Travis said the city’s sanitation trucks regularly experience problems picking up residents’
trash because of vehicles parked on the street and the leaf and brush crews also are hampered by
parked vehicles.
The ordinance originally approved by the council in May would have prohibited on-street
parking anywhere that would force traffic to cross the center of the street into the opposite lane
to safely get around the parked vehicle. It also limited parking on the side of the street to the
direction of traffic in that lane.
The ordinance faced opposition primarily from residents of Poplar Street, several of whom
said they have no other option other than parking on the street. Mayor Weiss and the council
deferred second reading on the ordinance three times before it was finally voted down at the
January meeting and the special committee appointed.
March 25, 2023
