Residents around Overton Square may soon get a special parking permit that would allow them to park in public spaces designated just for them.
Memphis City Council members Jim Strickland and Shea Flinn will host a meeting Thursday with Overton Square business owners and residents to discuss the permits. Strickland said the meeting is a culmination of months of meetings with those who work and live around Overton Square.
“At all times of day and in the evenings, residents are surrounded with people,” Strickland said. “Some residents only have access to their (house) through an alley and they’ll be blocked, sometimes it’s in their yards. It’s just a free-for-all.”
Strickland said he’s received complaints about parking from neighbors in the area and said that “everyone admits (Monroe) has been hit worse than anyplace.”
If residents and businesses agree to the idea Thursday, Strickland and Flinn would draft a city law creating special parking permits for residents around Overton Square. The law would also create special residential zones for some now-public, on-street parking spaces. The permits would allow residents and possibly their guests to park in the special zones.
All of it would be a test case, Strickland said, and be for a limited time and for a limited area. The whole thing — the permits and special parking zones — would have to be approved by the full council.
But the permits and zones are just part of an overall solution for the area, Strickland said. He said he also wants to install more crosswalks in the area, better lighting close to the Hatiloo Theater, and better signage to drive Square visitors to the new parking garage.
