STANTON : City Lifts Parking Ban on Court Street

After pleas from residents, the City Council this week restored parking on Court Street after banning it in an attempt to deter drug dealers.

The council in May voted to prohibit parking on the east side of Court Street between Orangewood Avenue and Plaza Way to deter drug dealers from stopping on the street to conduct illegal activities. But dozens of tenants in apartments along the street complained that it left them with no place to park.

A parking lot in Court Street Apartments, a private complex, provides one parking space for each apartment, leaving residents who own more than one car to rely on street parking, tenants complained. City officials investigated and determined that there are only 144 spaces for 122 units in the lot, City Manager Terry Matz told the council.

The apartment tenants also argued that drug dealing occurs more often in the parking lot behind a nearby discount store and not on Court Street.

After receiving a 65-signature petition and listening to about a dozen residents testify during a public hearing Tuesday night, the council agreed to reinstate parking on the east side of the street.

The council, however, asked the residents to help the city combat crime by forming a Neighborhood Watch group that would report drug dealing and other illegal activities.