Naples bans commercial vehicles from parking on Port Royal streets

The Naples City Council unanimously voted Monday to prohibit commercial vehicles from parking on the streets of Port Royal. The ban will go into effect in 60 days.

The council first discussed the ban during its Oct. 15 workshop. Gregg Strakaluse, streets and stormwater department director, explained that service trucks parking on the side of the road are a safety concern since the neighborhood's streets are so narrow.

Ninety percent of roads in Port Royal are 20 feet wide or less, according to a staff report. Under the city’s current ordinance, commercial vehicles cannot park on a street “where no less than 12 feet of paved right-of-way remains available for the free movement of vehicular traffic."

"A lot of these commercial vehicles are about 8 feet wide,” Strakaluse said during the workshop. “So if you’ve got a 20-foot width of pavement, 8 feet of a parked vehicle, you’re right at the minimum distance there."

Previously:No parking commercial vehicles on Port Royal streets? Naples Council to vote on ban

Strakaluse said that over the last few years, city staff has worked with the Port Royal Association to brainstorm several solutions to the parking issue, including:

• Increasing enforcement of the current ordinance.
• Alternating service days between odd and even house numbers so service trucks will only be on one side of the street on any given day.
• Widening the streets.
• Creating a “preferred service provider” list to consolidate the number of businesses operating in the neighborhood and, subsequently, the number of commercial vehicles.

Ultimately the association decided that the best solution is to completely ban commercial vehicles from parking on the streets, Port Royal Association President Andy Deane said.  

Commercial vehicles servicing construction sites will continue to operate under the city's current ordinance, which allows two-hour on-street parking in front of the home they're working on. The same ordinance also applies to utility service providers, such as cable companies and propane tank fillers.

If construction workers or service providers need to park on the street for more than two hours, they need to apply for a permit, which is already a requirement under the city's code, Strakaluse explained.

"It's very important that that provision, which is currently part of the code, be a part of the code because it allows staff to make sure that for deliveries ... that require large vehicles and long duration that flaggers are available and we have proper maintenance of traffic for those types of operations," he said.

However, Councilwoman Michelle McLeod questioned whether the two-hour window is reasonable.

"From what I heard from the service providers, their deliveries are taking longer than two hours," she said. "So my question is, is two hours the right number?"

Strakaluse said the code has been in place for "quite some time" and that he hasn't received a significant number of complaints about the two-hour time limit.

City staff will install no-parking signs at the entrance of the affected streets.