Parking Ban On Orchard Street Northwest Could Soon Be Lifted

The Transportation Safety Commission voted last night to lift a 20-year-old parking ban on the north side of Orchard Street NW, a response to commissioner Leonard Ignatowski’s request to lift the parking ban completely.

The recommendation will go before Vienna’s Town Council for final approval before it takes effect.

Ignatowski introduced the proposal with a survey of residents on the street, which indicated all but three homeowners wanted to eliminate a parking ban they felt was outdated and largely not observed. There were just two objections from residents between Nutley Street and Malcolm Lane, he said, and one vacant home whose owners could not be reached.

Parking on the road is currently banned at all times except between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sundays, to accommodate members of the nearby First Baptist Church of Vienna. But “people park there anyway,” he said.

 Ignatowski said with increasing use of Petersen Lane Park, overflow from Louise Archer Elementary School and the church, and family and friends of residents who visit Vienna and must leave their cars on the road, the parking ban no longer makes sense. Currently, every car in those situations could be ticketed or towed, he said.

Vienna resident John Runyon, who came to speak in favor of lifting the ban, said it also interferes with visits to Sons & Daughters Cemetery, where several of his family members are buried.

 “Unless we drive into the cemetery we can’t legally park ,” he said.

 Commission members debated restricting parking hours on the street after resident Tyler Williams told them students at Madison High School often leave their cars on the road and cut through the cemetery to avoid parking at the school. He also said lifting the ban could endanger young children that walk to school by forcing them to dart in and out of parked cars -- out of the vision of many drivers-- or make it more difficult for school buses to drop off students or pick them up.

Hour restrictions are the precedent for neighborhoods in southwest Vienna near the Metro, commissioner Tara Voigt said, where parking is banned from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to discourage commuters from leaving cars there.

The commission voted to recommend parking on one side of the road, instead of implementing such hours.

A date for the recommendation’s presentation to Town Council has not yet been set.