Lenape Trail Ordinance Proposed

The township committee has begun the process of crafting an ordinance that would limit daytime parking on Lenape Trail in an effort to keep parents from leaving their cars on the road as they pick their children up from school.

Police Chief John Paton said at a committee meeting Thursday that the street's residents have requested that parking be outlawed on the south side of the street from Lafayette Avenue to where the road curves toward Shunpike Road from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on school days. The road from Shunpike to where the road curves would not be affected.

They have also requested that parking be made illegal from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the north side of the street in the same area. And parking from the driveways of the first houses on either side of the street to Lafayette Avenue would be made illegal at all times.

The road's residents have said that parents who are going to pick their children up from nearby Lafayette Elementary School often park on the road and walk a short distance to the school and do not drive right up to the school to pick their children up.

The residents have attended previous committee meetings to discuss the situation.

"It's really that issue more so than the high school students parking there," Paton said.

The proposed ordinance will be up for public comment at the committee's next meeting on Feb. 25.

Committee member Bailey Brower said he wanted to make sure that signs advertising the new parking restrictions would be placed on Lenape Trail as soon as possible.

Paton said the department would likely be able to do so.

"We should be able to fast-track it," he said.