COLTS NECK – Township Committee members may amend ordinances that deal with parking in Colts Neck. The issue came up during the committee’s Sept. 13 meeting.
Colts Neck’s existing law states that no one “shall park a vehicle between the hours specified in Schedule II of any day (except Sundays and public holidays) upon any of the streets or parts of streets described in Schedule II.”
Schedule II states there is a blanket parking prohibition on every street in Colts Neck from 2-5 a.m, except on Sunday mornings and holidays.
There are six streets that have parking prohibitions outside of the blanket prohibition. Those streets are Edgewood Road, Kathleen Drive, Montrose Road, Pheasant Drive (now Pheasant Road), Victorian Way and Willow Lake Drive.
Parking is prohibited on both sides of those streets Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. from September through June due to their proximity to Colts Neck High School.
Kathleen Drive specifically prohibits parking on the first 500 feet beginning at Five Points Road and Montrose Road prohibits parking on the first 1,500 feet beginning at Route 537.
Committeemen Thomas Orgo and Frank Rizzuto have examined the parking ordinances to see if changes can or should be made.
Rizzuto said most residents want to keep in place the regulation the prevents vehicles from being parked on a street overnight in order to preserve the community’s rural nature.
“A lot of people feel the original intent of the ordinance is still valid,” Rizzuto said. “Our police chief was inclined to agree with that due to a patrol perspective and human nature. If we relax (the regulation), people theoretically could park (on the street) and if nobody complains then that car will be on the street until somebody complains.”
Orgo said a list of streets and certain parking restrictions on those streets has not been updated since 2006 and he said officials are interested in reviewing and possibly amending that list.
Officials advised residents who will have cars parked on a street overnight to call the police department’s non-emergency line at 732-780-7323 to inform the police of the situation.
There are certain areas in Colts Neck where specific parking regulations apply. Those areas are:
- Residential streets around Colts Neck High School. The law prevents students who do not have a parking space at the school from parking on residential streets.
- Streets in proximity to the Swimming River Reservoir. The law prevents people from accessing the reservoir through private property and prevents people from holding parties in the woods.
- The Grande residential development, because the streets are narrower than other streets in Colts Neck. Prohibiting cars from parking on the streets allows emergency vehicles to access the development’s roads.
Committee members are considering certain parking regulations for River’s Edge Drive, Trump National Boulevard and Professional Circle. They are waiting for feedback from the police department’s traffic safety officer.
Committee members also discussed the possibility of eliminating a mandatory court appearance that goes along with a parking ticket.
Township Attorney Meghan Bennett Clark, who also serves as the municipal prosecutor, supported eliminating the mandatory court appearance.
“A lot of times what has been happening is that there are people from out of state who stay over and get a ticket and it is not feasible for them to come back” for a court appearance, she said.
“Residents would also have to take off from work on Friday morning to take care of these parking tickets. We would prefer to have them pay (the fine) online rather than having them come to court.
“There is nothing for me to mediate with parking tickets, there is nothing for me to downgrade a parking ticket to, so there is no real point to having them discuss these matters in court,” Clark said.
Mayor Russell Macnow said the original idea behind requiring a court appearance was that a ticket might not be enough of a deterrent.
“The reason for (requiring a court appearance) is that a $56 ticket is not much to many people in this town,” he said. “The effect was to get them to come to court, to get them to waste a couple hours out of their day and maybe that would be the deterrent. That was the point (of the ordinance) at the time.”
Clark said Colts Neck’s municipal judge would eventually have to sign off on a decision to eliminate the court appearance for a parking ticket.
“Our inclination is not to make people come to court,” Macnow said. “The idea is not to torture people. We are looking to enforce ordinances, not to make someone’s life miserable.”
Officials said action on these issues could be taken in October.
