Street parking remains an issue in Lebanon

Abbey Nutter, The Lebanon Democrat, Tenn.
·2 min read

Apr. 20—The Lebanon Police Department is currently working to spread awareness about street parking rules in the city.

"We're on a big campaign right now," Lebanon Police Chief Mike Justice said. "We go out and we try to talk to folks."

Justice said that the school system also has concerns about street parking.

"I've talked to them directly," Justice said. "They have a lot of concern and basically have told us that if we allow that to happen during school hours that they're going to pull buses back and have kids walking to the entrances of these subdivisions, which is greatly concerning to us."

The city is currently doing field investigations regarding street parking and is looking for solutions to the issue.

"It's not a simple issue," Lebanon commissioner of public works Jeff Baines said. "There's folks on both sides of the fence about parking on the street. We've got to come back with some options."

Within the past year, the city has also changed its code to require driveways in future neighborhoods to be longer.

"I know it doesn't help the current neighborhoods, but we have at least solved that issue," Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell said.

City Council defers Food Truck Barn vote

The city council will defer a vote on the rezoning of a property on Callis Road until June 4 after several individuals raised concerns about the Food Truck Barn Specific Plan.

"That'll give us a month to take a look at that (project) and address everyone's concerns and make sure we've covered everything there," Ward 4 City Councilor Chris Crowell said.

Members of the East Nashville Beer works project team — whose project is also located on Callis Road — were concerned about the Food Truck Barn Specific Plan circumventing zoning.

"It's kind of a fairness issue," East Nashville Beer Works President Anthony Davis said. "Certainly, we would welcome a restaurant or something next door. We'd be happy to be a destination over there and have an Applebee's or Chipotle or anything. We have some concerns with this process though, and how this has gone."

One concern stems from language in the specific plan which states that food trucks, trailers and commercial vehicles on site will not be held to any architectural standards, as they're not considered fully permanent.

"But also, the entire reason that they're applying for a specific plan is so they can have food trucks, stationary overnight, seven days a week, which would then make them permanent," consultant Jared Dodson said.